THE    GOSPEL 


OF 


THE   DIVINE   SACRIFICE 


Acquaint  now  thyself  with  Him,  and  be  at  peace 

Book  of  Job 


THE .GOSPEL 


OF   THE 


DIVINE   SACRIFICE 

s* 

a  Stutig  in  iS&angcltcal 


WITH  SOME  CONCLUSIONS  TOUCHING  LIFE 


BY 

CHARLES    CUTHBERT   HALL,  D.D. 


NEW 

DODD,  MEAD   AND    COMPANY 
1897 


Copyright,  1896, 
BY  DODD,  MEAD  AND  COMPANY. 


JOHN  WILSON  AND  SON,  CAMBRIDGE,  U.S.A. 


TO 

Stye  fKtmotg  o£  Jflg  JFatfjer 

A  THOUGHTFUL  BELIEVER   IN   THE  SAVIOUR,  WHOM    HE 
NOW  BEHOLDS 

THESE   PAGES   ARE   INSCRIBED 

WITH    FILIAL   APPRECIATION,    GRATITUDE,    AND 
AFFECTION 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.    THE  ATONEMENT  NOT  THE  CAUSE  OF 
GOD'S  LOVE,  BUT  LOVE  THE  CAUSE 

OF  THE  ATONEMENT 3 

II.    THE  EXTENT  OF  THE  ATONEMENT;  OR, 

FOR  WHOM  DID  CHRIST  DIE?     .    .      29 

III.  WHY  NOT  FORGIVENESS  WITHOUT  SAC- 

RIFICE?      "57 

IV.  THE  SORROW  OF  CHRIST  IN  His  SAC- 

RIFICE   87 

V.    THE  JOY  OF  CHRIST  IN  His  SACRIFICE    119 
VI.    THE   REJECTION  OF  THE   ATONEMENT    149 
VII.    THE  PROBLEM  OF  HUMAN   SUFFERING 
CONSIDERED  IN  THE  LIGHT  OF  THE 

DIVINE  SACRIFICE 179 

VIII.    THE  SOVEREIGNTY  OF  GOD 209 

IX.  THE  APPLICATION  OF  THE  SACRIFICE 
OF  CHRIST  TO  THE  PRESENT  CON- 
DITION OF  SOCIETY 237 


Contents 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

X.    THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  IDEA  OF  HUMAN 

PERSONALITY 267 

XI.    CONDUCT  ;    OR,    THE    CROWNING    OF 

ONESELF 293 


viu 


Introductory  Note 

THE  following  pages  represent  the  attempt 
of  an  individual  to  state  for  himself  the 
meaning  of  the  Divine  Sacrifice.  The  his- 
toric Confessions  of  the  Protestant  Church 
are  not  meant  to  deter  the  individual  from 
making  his  own  studies  in  New  Testament 
truth.  They  are  meant  rather  to  stimu- 
late inquiry,  and  to  encourage  first-hand 
use  of  the  Scriptures.  True  reverence  for 
those  Confessions,  and  grateful  apprecia- 
tion of  their  value,  may  coexist  with  hum- 
ble efforts  to  think  out  for  oneself  "the 
mystery  which  hath  been  hid  from  ages 
and  from  generations,  but  now  is  made 
manifest." 

The  writer  disclaims  all  controversial 
intent  in  that  which  he  has  written.  His 
aim  has  been  to  state,  in  terms  of  modern 
thought,  "  the  glorious  Gospel  of  the 
Blessed  God ;  "  to  emphasize  the  bearing 
ix 


Introductory  Note 

of  the  Atonement  upon  personality  and 
upon  conduct;  to  commend  the  Evangeli- 
cal position  to  some  thoughtful  men  and 
women  who  may  have  experienced  diffi- 
culty in  appropriating  the  supreme  mes- 
sage of  Christianity.  The  joy  of  life  and 
the  dignity  of  conduct  are  bound  up  in 
that  supreme  message  of  Christianity. 
There  is,  therefore,  a  place  for  any  word, 
however  crudely  spoken,  that  may  make 
Christ  and  His  Sacrifice  more  intelligible 
to  a  human  soul. 

This  book  rests  on  three  assumptions : 
The  Authenticity  of  the  Scriptures,  the 
Inspiration  of  the  Scriptures,  the  Godhead 
of  Christ.  These  assumptions  are  logical 
in  the  premises.  The  writer  could,  if  re- 
quired, state  the  processes  through  which 
he  has  reached  for  himself  thorough  con- 
victions of  the  Authenticity  and  Inspira- 
tion of  the  Holy  Scriptures  and  of  the 
Godhead  of  Jesus  Christ.  But  this  would 
be  to  extend  the  contents  of  the  present 
work  beyond  proper  limits.  It  is  not 
necessary.  The  ultimate  evidential  test  of 
the  message  of  Christianity  is  in  itself. 


Introductory  Note 

The  Gospel  of  the  Divine  Sacrifice  is  its 
own  Apologia.  In  the  breadth  of  its  con- 
ception of  God ;  in  the  axiomatic  truth  of 
its  delineation  of  man ;  in  the  seraphic 
purity  of  its  principles ;  in  the  regal  majesty 
of  its  commandments;  in  the  idyllic  ten- 
derness of  its  consolations,  —  the  Gospel 
of  the  Cross  demonstrates  itself,  to  whom- 
soever will  receive  it,  as  the  wisdom  of 
God  and  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation. 

SINTON,  WESTPORT, 

August,  A.D.  1896. 


XI 


I 


THE   ATONEMENT    NOT  THE   CAUSE 

OF  GOD'S   LOVE,   BUT  LOVE  THE 

CAUSE   OF   THE   ATONEMENT 


We  have  seen  and  do  testify,  that  the  Father  sent 
the  Son  to  be  the  Saviour  of  the  world. 

FIRST  EPISTLE  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

But  God  commendeth  His  own  love  toward  us, 
in  that  while  we  were  yet  sinners,  Christ  died  for 
us.  Much  more  then,  being  now  justified  by  His 
blood,  shall  we  be  saved  from  the  wrath  of  God 
through  Him. 

EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS. 


Chapter  I 

The  Atonement  not  the  Cause  of 
God's  Love,  but  Love  the  Cause 
of  the  Atonement 

CHRISTIANITY  is  the  Gospel  of  the 
Divine  Sacrifice.  Christianity  de- 
rives its  name  from  Christ,  its  mean- 
ing from  the  Cross.  Reduced  to  its 
simplest  terms  Christianity  gives 
Jesus  Christ  and  Him  crucified. 
This,  the  essence  of  Christianity, 
forms  the  subject  of  the  following 
pages.  The  conditions  of  our  time 
invite  the  study  of  this  subject.  Our 
time  is  a  crowded,  pushing,  keen- 
witted time ;  there  are  many  gospels, 
—  gospels  of  ambition,  gospels  of  self- 
ishness, gospels  of  progress,  gospels 
of  worldly  and  churchly  pride.  It  is 
a  time  of  all  times  to  consider  the 


The  Atonement 

Gospel  of  the  Divine  Sacrifice.  The 
conditions  of  our  lives  invite  the 
study  of  this  subject.  Those  who 
are  trained  to  think  for  themselves, 
not  to  do  their  thinking  by  proxy, 
are  also  tempted  to  think  too  little 
about  Jesus  Christ  and  Him  cruci- 
fied. It  becomes  easier  to  accept 
the  forms  of  Christianity  than  to 
realize  its  essence ;  that  which  is 
spiritual  tends  to  sink  into  that 
which  is  habitual ;  the  vision  of 
God  to  fade  into  the  light  of  com- 
mon day.  The  glory  of  God  calls 
for  the  study  of  this  subject.  "  God, 
Who  at  sundry  times  and  in  divers 
manners  spake  in  time  past  unto 
the  fathers  by  the  prophets,  hath 
in  these  last  days  spoken  unto  us  by 
His  Son."  The  Gospel  of  the  Divine 
Sacrifice  is  God's  message  by  His 
Son.  Christ  is  the  Word,  —  the 
Message  Incarnate, —  Him  we  must 
hear.  "  See,"  said  one  of  old,  "  that 
ye  refuse  not  Him  That  speaketh. 


The  Atonement 

For  if  they  escaped  not,  when  they 
refused  Him  That  warned  them  on 
earth,  much  more  shall  not  we  escape 
who  turn  away  from  Him  Thatwarn- 
eth  from  heaven :  Whose  voice  then 
shook  the  earth :  but  now  hath  He 
promised,  saying :  Yet  once  more 
will  I  make  to  tremble,  not  the  earth 
only,  but  also  the  heaven." 

The  present  observations  on  this 
subject  proceed  from  an  attempt 
(begun  long  since  in  the  writer's  own 
private  studies  of  the  Word,  and  for 
the  sake  of  satisfying  the  hunger  of 
his  own  heart,  and  continued  in  the 
larger  hope  of  helping  others),  to  find 
a  starting-point  from  which  to  think 
one's  way  into  the  Gospel  of  the 
Divine  Sacrifice ;  into  the  truth 
"Jesus  Christ  and  Him  crucified;" 
into  the  essence  of  Christianity.  The 
result  of  this  attempt  has  been  the 
evolution  of  a  formula :  The  Atone- 
ment not  the  cause  of  God's  Love, 
but  Love  the  cause  of  the  Atone- 
5 


The  Atonement 

ment.  This  formula  furnishes  a 
convenient  starting-point  from  which 
to  begin  to  think  one's  way  into  the 
problem  of  "  Jesus  Christ  and  Him 
crucified."  There  must  be  a  starting- 
point  from  which  the  human  mind 
shall  begin  its  study  of  the  Divine 
Sacrifice.  Intellectually,  a  starting- 
point  is  a  necessity.  The  proposition, 
"  Jesus  Christ  and  Him  crucified  " 
is  too  great  to  be  taken  up  as  an 
incident,  a  detached  event,  to  be 
considered  by  itself.  There  must  be 
something  back  of  it,  something  prior 
to  it,  some  antecedent  fact  of  some 
kind,  of  which  fact  "Jesus  Christ  and 
Him  crucified  "  is  the  result.  The 
question  then  is  :  What  is  that 
antecedent  fact  upon  which  the  mind 
may  rest,  and  from  which  the  mind 
may  begin,  as  from  a  starting-point, 
to  work  its  way  up  to  the  supreme 
consummation,  which  is  the  Divine 
Sacrifice  ?  Spiritually,  a  starting- 
point  is  a  necessity.  If  the  Holy 
6 


The  Atonement 

Spirit  reveals  to  us  a  Saviour  Whom 
we  are  to  worship,  He  must,  in  order 
that  we  may  worship  Him  intelli- 
gently, also  reveal  the  cause  of  which 
the  Saviour's  work  is  the  result. 
Faith  requires  a  starting-point  from 
which  to  pursue  its  course,  a  funda- 
mental idea  on  which  to  build,  an 
underlying  ultimate  cause,  in  which, 
as  in  the  socket  of  Calvary's  rock, 
to  plant  the  Cross.  Deny  this  to 
faith,  and  faith  in  Jesus  Christ  and 
Him  crucified  becomes  a  vague  and 
fitful  conception,  floating  about  a 
cross  which  is  rather  a  figure  of 
speech  than  a  fixed  and  unalterable 
reality.  The  soul  hungers  to  find 
that  starting-point.  It  cannot  take 
Jesus  Christ  and  Him  crucified  as 
an  incident,  an  after-thought,  an  he- 
roic rescue  devised  in  an  emergency. 
It  feels  instinctively  that  the  Cross 
must  be  the  result  of  some  deeper 
cause.  It  demands  to  be  led  to  that 
deeper  cause,  that  it  may  make  it  the 
7 


The  Atonement 

starting-point  of  thought.  Such  a 
starting-point  is  provided  in  the  for- 
mula :  The  Atonement  not  the 
cause  of  God's  Love,  but  Love  the 
cause  of  the  Atonement.  In  defin- 
ing this  formula  it  becomes  necessary 
to  state  the  assumptions  on  which  it 
rests.  They  are  three  in  number : 
the  authenticity  of  the  Scriptures, 
the  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures,  the 
Godhead  of  Christ.  It  is  not  essen- 
tial, for  our  present  purpose,  to  sketch 
even  in  outline  the  process  of  thought 
by  which  an  unprejudiced  mind  may 
be  satisfied  of  the  authenticity  of  the 
Scriptures,  of  the  inspiration  of  the 
Scriptures,  and  of  the  Godhead  of 
Jesus  Christ;  it  is  sufficient  to  an- 
nounce that  these  three  propositions 
are  assumed  as  the  basis  of  all  that 
may  hereafter  be  said. 

It  will  be  observed  that  the  formula 
contains  two  declarations,  —  one  neg- 
ative, one  positive. 

I.  The  negative  declaration:  The 
8 


The  Atonement 

Atonement  is  not  the  cause  of  God's 
Love.  When  one  who  desires  a 
settled  faith  in  the  Atonement,  and 
who  feels  that  the  Death  of  Christ 
must  be  more  than  a  mere  tragic  in- 
cident in  history,  begins  to  search 
for  that  ultimate  idea  which  lies  be- 
neath the  Atonement,  and  which 
explains  it,  he  may  think  he  has  found 
it  in  the  idea  of  a  loving  Saviour  in- 
terposing to  shield  guilty  sinners 
from  an  angry  God.  As  he  turns 
the  pages  of  his  Bible,  his  eyes  fall 
on  many  passages  which  speak  of  the 
wrath  of  God,  and  of  the  punishment 
of  sin ;  and  then  in  melting  contrast 
to  those  fearful  passages  breathing  of 
judgment,  the  face  of  Christ  shines 
upon  him  from  the  same  Bible,  — 
the  face  of  the  Man  of  Sorrows,  pale 
with  fatigue,  seamed  with  grief, 
scarred  with  the  wounds  from  a 
thorny  crown,  marvellous  in  pity, 
compassion,  willingness  to  suffer. 
As  these  two  opposite  ideas  meet  him 
9 


The  Atonement 

again  and  again  in  his  study  of  the 
Bible,  —  the  wrath  of  God,  th^  ten- 
derness and  self-sacrifice  of  Jesus,  — 
he  feels  the  force  of  the  contrast  be- 
tween them  working  out  a  practical 
result  in  his  own  thought.  God  is 
contrasted  with  Christ.  God  the 
stern  and  terrible  punisher  of  sin ; 
Christ  the  meek  and  gentle  lamb; 
Christ  the  voluntary  offering,  placing 
himself  between  the  terrible  wrath  of 
God  and  the  defenceless  head  of  man, 
and  receiving  upon  Himself  the  storm 
of  wrath.  And  as  his  thought  crys- 
tallizes around  these  two  contrasted 
ideas,  he  conceives  of  God  as  a  Being 
Whose  wrath  has  been  appeased  by 
the  Atonement,  Who  loves  us  because 
Christ  has  died  for  us;  and  thus  the 
ultimate  idea  lying  back  of  the  Atone- 
ment appears  to  be  that  the  Atone- 
ment is  the  cause  of  God's  love. 
Christ  is  thus  represented  to  the 
mind  as  having  in  His  love  and  com- 
passion stepped  between  man  and 

10 


The  Atonement 

God  to  make  God  feel  differently 
toward1  man,  to  make  Him  love  man, 
Who  but  for  Christ  would  not  have 
loved  man.  It  is  easy  for  any  one 
familiar  with  the  New  Testament  to 
see  how  this  contrast  between  the 
wrath  of  God  and  the  love  of  Christ, 
or,  to  speak  more  exactly,  this  con- 
trast between  God  and  Christ  can  be 
supported  by  texts  of  Scripture,  and 
nothing  could  be  farther  from  the 
writer's  purpose  than  to  criticise  or 
to  condemn  the  opinions  of  those  who 
are  persuaded  that  this  is  the  deepest 
idea  beneath  the  Atonement :  that 
the  Atonement  is  the  cause  of  God's 
love,  that  God  loves  man  because  of 
the  Atonement,  because  Christ  died. 
But  as  one  studies  the  effects  of  this 
view  in  the  spiritual  life  of  people, 
one  sees  certain  things  which  suggest 
the  thought  that  this  may  not  be  the 
ultimate  idea  which  underlies  the 
great  truth  of  Jesus  Christ  and  Him 
crucified.  For  the  effect  of  this  view 


The  Atonement 

seems  to  be  the  introduction  of  dis- 
cord into  the  Holy  Trinity,  setting 
the  Father  against  the  Son,  and  the 
Son  against  the  Father  in  Their  re- 
spective attitudes  toward  man.  The 
Father  is  stern  and  wrathful ;  the  Son 
is  tender  and  pitiful ;  the  Father  has 
lifted  His  hand  to  strike  and  destroy ; 
the  Son,  moved  by  a  holy  passion  to 
save,  has  flung  Himself  into  the  very 
path  of  descending  judgment,  to  re- 
ceive its  shock  upon  His  own  Person. 
Can  this  be  our  deepest  and  best 
thought  of  God  ?  Can  this  thought 
lead  us  as  far  as  we  may  be  led  into 
the  conception  of  the  perfect  unity  of 
life  and  purpose  which  exists  in  the 
Triune  Godhead  ?  Moreover,  as  one 
traces  the  results  of  this  proposition, 
that  the  love  of  God  is  caused  by 
Christ's  Atonement,  as  these  results 
work  themselves  out  in  many  of  the 
lives  brought  in  contact  with  the  idea, 
one  feels  that  in  reaching  this  idea 
we  have  not  gone  so  far  as  we  may 

12 


The  Atonement 

go  to  find  a  starting-point  for  our 
thought  of  the  Atonement.  For  one 
encounters  two  opposite  results  which 
apparently  develop  from  the  proposi- 
tion that  the  Atonement  is  the  cause 
of  love.  One  result  is  a  form  of  cling- 
ing to  Christ  which  practically  sepa- 
rates Him  from  God.  We  find  one 
trusting,  loving,  clinging  to,  confiding 
in  Jesus  as  a  shelter  from  God ;  much 
as  a  child  runs  to  its  mother  and 
buries  its  face  in  her  arms  to  shut  out 
from  view  some  gloomy  figure  that 
has  terrified  it.  The  other  result  is 
substantially  the  rejection  of  the 
Atonement  as  something  unworthy 
of  God  ;  the  setting  aside  of  Jesus  as 
Mediator,  from  the  feeling  that  God 
is  too  great,  too  noble,  too  good  to 
demand  the  blood  of  an  innocent 
victim  such  as  Christ  was,  before  He 
will  be  induced  to  love  man.  There 
are  those  who  deny  the  Atonement 
out  of  respect  for  God ;  they  feel  un- 
willing to  attribute  to  God  a  nature 
13 


The  Atonement 

so  revengeful  that  He  will  not  love 
man  until  He  has  seen  His  own  Son 
stretched  in  deadly  anguish  and  ig- 
nominy on  the  Cross. 

II.  Observing  for  years  these  results 
working  themselves  out  respectively 
in  various  classes  of  minds  (while, 
one  is  also  bound  to  say,  many  others 
seem  to  experience  no  diffculty  in 
holding  that  the  Atonement  is  the 
cause  of  God's  love),  it  has  appeared 
to  the  writer  possible  to  reach  some 
still  deeper  basis  of  thought  where 
one  might  establish  a  starting-point 
whence  to  think  one's  way  on  to 
Jesus  Christ  and  Him  crucified. 
And  in  this  formula,  the  positive 
proposition  of  which  is  now  pre- 
sented, that  deeper  basis  of  thought 
is  humbly  suggested.  It  is  this : 
The  Atonement  not  the  cause  of 
God's  Love,  but  Love  the  cause  of 
the  Atonement.  Not  this  :  God 
loves  us  because  Christ  died  for  us ; 
but  this :  Because  God  loves  us 
14 


The  Atonement 

Christ  died  for  us.  Love  the  cause 
of  the  Atonement.  "  We  have  seen 
and  do  testify,  that  the  Father  sent 
the  Son  to  be  the  Saviour  of  the 
world."  "  God  commendeth  His  own 
love  toward  us,  in  that  while  we  were 
yet  sinners,  Christ  died  for  us." 

As  one  takes  the  Bible  into  one's 
hand,  and  with  an  open  mind  and  a 
prayerful  spirit  brings  together  all 
the  material  in  it  bearing  upon  the 
formula  now  before  us ;  doing  this 
in  absolute  honesty,  neither  sup- 
pressing any  fact  in  the  interest  of  a 
theory,  nor  buttressing  any  precon- 
ceived opinion  by  an  artful  use  of 
Scripture,  —  four  thoughts  present 
themselves,  and  form  in  their  rela- 
tion to  one  another  a  starting-point 
from  which  to  think  our  way  up  to 
Jesus  Christ  and  Him  crucified: 
The  Unity  of  God.  What  Man  is 
to  God.  What  Sin  is  to  God.  What 
Atonement  is  to  God. 

i.  The  Unity  of  God.  Not  alone 
'5 


The  Atonement 

on  the  quotation  of  simple  and 
separate  texts  rests  this  most  fun- 
damental conception  of  our  reli- 
gion.. It  is  involved  philosophically 
and  ethically  in  the  Christian  con- 
cept of  God.  There  is  One  God, 
and  if  in  His  mysterious  love  He 
reveals  Himself  to  us  as  Three  in 
One,  the  very  terms  of  that  re- 
velation preclude  the  thought  of 
conflicting  purpose  or  contrasted 
feelings  in  the  life  of  the  Godhead. 
The  thought  of  the  Father  hating 
while  the  Son  is  loving;  of  the  Fa- 
ther destroying  while  the  Son  is 
saving,  becomes  unthinkable  when 
we  stand  within  the  precinct  of  the 
Word.  Explicitly  have  we  been  told 
of  that  eternal  Unity.  Christ  de- 
clared it :  "  The  Comforter  will  not 
speak  from  Himself,  but  what  He 
shall  hear,  that  shall  He  speak." 
"  The  Son  can  do  nothing  of  Him- 
self, but  what  He  seeth  the  Father 
do."  "  The  Father  is  glorified  in  the 
16 


The  Atonement 

Son."  If  we  behold  in  the  Father 
holy  wrath  against  sin,  we  may  know 
that  the  Son,  gentle  and  gracious 
though  He  be,  shares  in  all  its  ful- 
ness that  passion  of  holy  wrath.  If 
we  behold  in  the  Son  tenderness  and 
grace,  the  spirit  of  self-giving  for  the 
sake  of  man,  we  may  know,  what- 
ever else  we  seem  to  see  in  God,  that 
that  marvellous,  sacrificial  love  for 
humanity  is  also  in  the  heart  of  the 
Father.  "  He  that  hath  seen  me," 
said  Christ,  "  hath  seen  the  Father." 

2.  What  Man  is  to  God.  Be- 
cause we  have  in  the  Bible  declara- 
tions of  the  wrath  of  God,  and 
demonstrations  of  the  judgment  of 
God,  some  have  concluded  that  the 
attitude  of  God's  heart  toward  man 
is  that  of  revengeful  passion,  which 
has  simply  been  appeased  by  the 
shedding  of  Christ's  blood  ;  and  that 
the  love  which  is  now  predicated  of 
God  is  not  a  love  for  us,  so  to  speak, 
in  our  own  right,  but  a  love  for 


The  Atonement 

Christ  the  Son,  the  benefit  of  which 
only  indirectly  comes  to  us.  But 
not  to  this  conclusion  is  one  neces- 
sarily led  in  one's  study  of  God  as 
related  to  man.  If  any  one  would 
know  what  man  is  to  God,  let  him 
study  that  relationship  as  it  appeared 
before  sin  entered  the  world  to  darken 
the  scene ;  let  him  look  upon  man  as 
he  stood  before  God  in  the  simplicity 
of  an  unfallen  state,  beautiful,  stain- 
less, glorious,  a  child  worthy  of  his 
Father.  And  what  then  was  man  to 
God  in  the  unfallen  state  ?  He  was 
God's  child,  and  God  was  his  Father, 
and  God's  delight  was  in  him,  and 
God's  hopes  were  centered  upon  him, 
and  God's  world  was  given  him  for 
a  home,  and  God's  banner  over  him 
was  love.  What  man  was  to  God 
then,  when  he  had  not  sinned,  but 
when  God  knew  that  man's  personal 
freedom  made  it  possible  for  him  to 
sin,  that  man  is  to  God  to-day,  when 
he  has  sinned,  and  come  short  of  the 
18 


The  Atonement 

glory  of  God,  and  has  brought  down 
on  him  the  wrath  of  God,  and  done 
things  worthy  of  death  Man  was 
dear  to  God  then  in  the  sinless  state. 
He  is  dear  to  God  now  in  that  sinful 
state  which  inevitably  exposes  him 
to  the  wrath  of  holiness.  Man  has 
changed ;  God  has  not  changed. 
God  loved  him  then,  God  loves  him 
now.  God  was  his  Father  then, 
God  is  his  Father  now.  The  calm 
study  of  the  Scriptures  appears  to 
justify  not  only,  but  to  require,  a 
belief  in  the  Fatherhood  of  God 
toward  all  men,  —  the  saintliest  and 
the  most  devil-possessed.  This  is 
the  thought  from  which  some  shrink 
because  of  the  rash  conclusion  which 
has  been  drawn  from  it.  The  Father- 
hood of  God  is  sometimes  repre- 
sented as  in  itself  an  all-sufficient 
relationship,  which  renders  the  Atone- 
ment unnecessary,  and  which  sinks 
the  penal  consequences  of  sin  in  an 
unfathomable  ocean  of  Divine  be- 
19 


The  Atonement 

nevolence.  Men  rashly  talk  of  the 
Fatherhood  of  God  as  if  it  were  a 
universal  indulgence,  a  license  to  sin. 
And  for  this  reason  some  with  much 
cause  shrink  from  using  the  term 
lest  it  be  made  a  snare.  But  it  is 
not  necessary,  it  is  not  practicable, 
to  surrender  a  term  which,  however 
it  may  have  been  perverted,  contains 
the  essential  thought  of  Christianity, 

—  that  man  is  dear  to  God,  that  God 
loves  man   as  the  offspring  of    His 
own  life ;  and  that  all  that  has  been 
done  for  man's  redemption   springs 
from  the  eternal  love  in  the  heart  of 
God  which  would  not  let  man  go  into 
self-destruction  without   placing   an 
Atonement  within  his  reach. 

3.  What  Sin  is  to  God.  It  is 
in  realizing  this  that  we  have  most 
signally  failed,  and  in  failing  here 
we  have  failed  to  realize  the  true 
intensity  of  those  blended  passions 

—  the  passion  of  wrath  and  the  pas- 
sion   of    love  —  that   meet    in     the 

20 


The  Atonement 

Atonement.  Who  can  realize  what 
sin  is  to  God :  how  horrible  an  of- 
fence to  His  nature ;  how  gross  an 
intrusion  upon  the  order  of  His 
universe;  how  intolerable  a  condi- 
tion which  must  be  beaten  down  and 
stamped  out  with  the  vengeance  of 
righteousness  ?  They  who  suppose 
that  wrath  against  sin  is  incom- 
patible with  God's  Fatherhood  show 
by  that  supposition  that  they  have 
failed  to  grasp  the  essential  condi- 
tions of  life  as  they  exist  in  a  holy  Be- 
ing. We  have  not  understood  what 
God  is  until  we  are  able  to  speak  of 
the  wrath  of  holy  love  against  sin. 
If  God  is  love,  and  God  is  holy,  the 
wrath  of  holy  love,  august,  terrible, 
pure,  is  the  necessary  condition  of 
such  a  Being  in  the  presence  of  sin. 
There  is  a  wrath  known  on  earth 
which  is  born  of  sinfulness,  and  is 
filled  with  hatred.  Such  wrath  is  of 
the  devil,  a  hellish  passion.  But  the 
wrath  of  God  is  the  wrath  of  holy  love, 

21 


The  Atonement 

the  protest  of  God's  truth  and  beauty 
and  purity  and  love  against  that 
which,  by  disorganizing  the  universe, 
obstructs  His  purpose  of  eternal 
affection  toward  a  race  made  in 
His  own  Image,  born  out  of  His 
own  life.  Ah,  what  is  sin  to  God ! 
If  we  in  moments  of  pure  and 
noble  thought  have  suddenly  been 
stricken  by  it,  and  have  felt  the  just 
wrath  of  righteousness  rising  up 
within  us,  what  must  be  the  wrath 
of  God  against  the  sin  cherished  in 
human  lives  ;  pursued  and  followed 
after  by  human  passions;  wrought 
out  to  the  foul  and  bitter  end  in 
human  histories! 

4.  What,  then,  is  the  Atone- 
ment to  God  ?  Ask  that  question 
in  the  light  of  these  preceding 
thoughts,  —  what  man  is  to  God,  and 
what  sin  is  to  God.  Man  is  the 
dear  object  of  God's  love ;  sin  is 
the  intolerable  outrage  against  God's 
nature,  filling  God's  universe  with 

22 


The  Atonement 

lawlessness  and  misery.  Atonement 
is  the  supreme  effort  of  God's  love, 
by  His  own  suffering  to  save  man 
from  that  sin  which  makes  him  an 
object  of  God's  wrath.  Put  side  by 
side  these  two  Scriptures :  "  The 
wrath  of  God  is  revealed  from 
heaven  against  all  ungodliness  and 
unrighteousness  of  men,"  —  that  is 
.the  essential  attitude  of  God's  holi- 
ness towards  sin ;  —  "  But  God  com- 
mendeth  His  own  love  toward  us, 
in  that,  while  we  were  yet  sinners, 
Christ  died  for  us  ;  much  more  then, 
being  now  justified  by  His  blood,  we 
shall  be  saved  from  the  wrath  of  God 
through  Him." 

We  return,  then,  to  the  formula, 
believing  it  to  express  the  spirit 
of  the  Scriptures :  The  Atonement 
not  the  cause  of  God's  Love,  but 
Love  the  cause  of  the  Atonement. 
The  Atonement  is  the  expression  on 
earth  of  a  love  that  rilled  God's  heart 
from  the  beginning.  The  Atone- 
23 


The  Atonement 

ment  is  God's  self-giving  to  save  us 
from  the  holy  wrath  under  which 
our  sins  have  brought  us.  The  love 
of  the  holy  God  is  the  starting-point 
from  which  to  think  one's  way  up  to 
Jesus  Christ  and  Him  crucified. 
Begin  there,  with  the  knowledge  that 
God  is  love.  Be  sure  that  a  holy 
God  loves  you.  Be  sure  that  because 
He  is  holy,  His  wrath,  the  indignant, 
sorrowful  wrath  of  holy  love,  is  re- 
vealed from  heaven  against  all  ungod- 
liness and  unrighteousness  of  men. 
Be  sure  that  that  tremendous  love 
has  expressed  itself  in  sacrificial  suf- 
fering to  save  you  from  that  tremen- 
dous wrath.  Take  these  thoughts, 
put  them  together,  and  realize  two 
facts :  the  nature  of  sin,  the  Person 
of  Christ.  Realize  the  nature  of  sin  ; 
it  is  a  scorn  of  the  Atonement,  a  con- 
tempt of  God's  supreme  declaration 
of  love,  a  delivering  over  of  one's  self 
to  wrath,  the  wrath  which  is,  be- 
cause God  is  holy.  Realize  the 

24 


The  Atonement 

Person  of  Christ.  Behold  in  Him 
the  holy  God  Whose  wrath  is  revealed 
against  sin,  suffering  in  the  flesh  for 
love,  to  save  from  that  wrath.  Realize 
the  Godhead  of  Christ.  Grasp  the 
sense  in  which  Christ  declares  the 
Unity  of  Godhead  when  He  says : 
"  I  and  my  Father  are  One ; "  and 
realizing  the  Unity  of  the  Godhead, 
bow  before  the  Cross  as  before  a 
throne. 


II 

THE   EXTENT  OF  THE  ATONEMENT; 
OR,   FOR  WHOM   DID   CHRIST  DIE? 


27 


Jesus  Christ  the  righteous  is  the  propitiation 
for  our  sins ;  and  not  for  ours  only,  but  also  for 
the  whole  world. 

FIRST  EPISTLE  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

We  behold  Him  Who  hath  been  made  a  little 
lower  than  the  angels,  even  Jesus,  because  of  the 
suffering  of  death  crowned  with  glory  and  honor, 
that  by  the  grace  of  God  He  should  taste  death 
for  every  man. 

EPISTLE  TO  THE  HEBREWS. 


28 


Chapter  II 

The  Extent  of  the  Atonement ;   or, 
For  whom  did  Christ  die? 

THE  subject  now  brought  to  our 
attention  is  the  Extent  of  the  Atone- 
ment. This  is  the  next  step,  logically 
speaking,  following  the  position  de- 
fined in  the  preceding  chapter.  We 
sought  a  basis  on  which  to  rest  the 
idea  of  an  Atonement ;  a  starting- 
point  from  which  to  think  our  way  up 
to  Jesus  Christ  and  Him  crucified. 
That  basis  we  found  in  the  proposi- 
tion :  The  Atonement  not  the  cause 
of  God's  Love,  but  Love  the  cause 
of  the  Atonement.  Examining  the 
former  and  negative  member  of  the 
proposition  in  the  light  of  Scripture, 
we  concluded  that  the  Atonement  is 
29 


The  Extent  of  the  Atonement 

not  the  cause  of  God's  love,  inas- 
much as  there  could  not  be  division 
and  conflict  of  motives  in  the  God- 
head ;  the  Father  hating  man  and 
wishing  to  destroy  him ;  the  Son 
loving  man  and  interposing  to  save 
him  from  the  Father,  and  to  turn  the 
disposition  of  the  Father  from  wrath 
to  love.  Examining  the  latter  and 
positive  member  of  the  proposition, 
we  concluded  that  "  Jesus  Christ  and 
Him  crucified "  is  the  supreme  ex- 
pression of  the  love  of  the  Father ; 
that,  in  the  words  of  St.  John,  "  the 
Father  sent  the  Son  to  be  the  Saviour 
of  the  world,"  and  that  in  the  words 
of  St.  Paul,  "  God  commendeth  His 
own  love  toward  us,  in  that,  while 
we  were  yet  sinners,  Christ  died  for 
us."  And  our  starting-point  was, 
accordingly,  thus  defined ;  not  in  the 
pride  of  reason,  nor  with  the  confi- 
dence of  dogmatic  assertion,  but  in 
the  humility  and  reverence  befitting 
those  who  are  founding  all  their 
3° 


The  Extent  of  the  Atonement 

thought  upon  the  authenticity  of 
Scripture,  the  inspiration  of  Scrip- 
ture, and  the  Godhead  of  Christ : 
Not  God  loves  us  because  Christ  died 
for  us,  but  Christ  died  for  us  because 
God  loves  us. 

With  this  starting-point  ascertained 
and  defined,  the  next  step  is  to  inquire 
into  the  extent  of  the  Atonement; 
that  is  to  say,  the  wideness  of  its 
application.  Assuming  the  Atone- 
ment to  be  the  supreme  expression 
of  God's  love,  the  question  follows : 
To  whom  is  this  expression  of  love 
addressed  ?  On  whose  behalf  did  the 
Atonement  take  place  ?  For  whom 
did  Christ  die  ?  For  one  ?  for  some  ? 
or  for  all  ? 

It  is  quite  evident  that  both  the 
degree  of  interest  and  the  kind  of 
interest  excited  in  our  minds  by  the 
Atonement  are  affected  by  our  opin- 
ion of  its  extent.  An  event  which 
concerns  one,  or  some,  cannot  rank 
in  interest  with  an  event  which 
31 


The  Extent  of  the  Atonement 

equally  concerns  all.  All  men  of 
intelligence  may  take  a  certain  kind 
of  interest  in  an  occurrence  affecting 
one  individual,  or  one  class  of  indi- 
viduals ;  but  the  interest  so  awakened 
is  different  in  kind  as  well  as  in  degree 
from  that  which  every  man  takes  in 
an  event  immediately  affecting  him- 
self. 

In  the  foregoing  observations  on 
the  subject  of  the  Atonement,  and  in 
all  that  may  follow,  the  writer  desires 
only  that  he  may  be  regarded  as  a 
seeker  after  truth  in  the  Word  of  God. 
He  has  no  discoveries  to  announce, 
no  original  conclusions  to  propound, 
no  claim  to  make  upon  public  atten- 
tion which  rests  in  intellectual  certi- 
tude ;  above  all,  no  assault  to  bring 
against  those  whose  thought  has 
worked  out  on  other  lines.  He  is  but 
a  seeker  after  truth  in  the  place  where 
alone  the  truth  he  seeks  may  be  found, 
—  that  is,  in  the  inspired  Scriptures. 
Other  truths  may  be  sought  and 
32 


The  Extent  of  the  Atonement 

found  in  other  places.  Astronomy 
has  its  own  gospel  of  the  glory  of 
God  to  proclaim  from  the  star  spaces 
of  the  ecliptic  and  the  orbits  of  the 
planets;  Archaeology  has  its  own 
gospel  of  the  antiquity  of  man  to 
proclaim  from  the  lake-dwellings  of 
Switzerland,  the  shell-mounds  of 
Denmark,  the  caves  of  Belgium  and 
Sicily  and  Gibraltar ;  but  the  Gospel 
of  the  Divine  Sacrifice  is  proclaimed 
only  from  the  Scriptures,  and  apart 
from  them  we  have  no  means  of  com- 
prehending the  work  of  Christ.  It 
is,  however,  impossible  to  give  any 
answer  whatsoever  to  the  question 
"  For  whom  did  Christ  die  ?  "  without 
referring  to  the  great  historical  divide 
which  distinguishes  those  who  inter- 
pret the  Scripture  teaching  on  the 
death  of  Christ  as  declaring  a  limited 
Atonement  from  those  who  interpret 
that  teaching  as  the  declaration  of  a 
universal  Atonement.  There  are  four 
ways  of  answering  the  question,  "  For 
3  33 


The  Extent  of  the  Atonement 

whom  did  Christ  die  ? "  He  died  for 
none ;  or  He  died  for  some  one  favored 
individual ;  or  He  died  for  a  portion 
of  the  human  race ;  or  He  died  for  all. 
With  the  first  and  the  second  of 
these  answers  we  have  no  concern, 
as  the  facts  of  Scripture  sweep  them 
aside.  It  cannot  be  that  Christ  died 
for  no  one,  that  His  death  was  a  mere 
catastrophe  resulting  from  His  own 
determination  to  oppose  and  rebuke 
the  Jews ;  for  the  Word  of  God  repre- 
sents His  death  as  containing  a  pur- 
pose and  a  result  intended  to  affect 
life  other  than  His  own.  It  cannot 
be  that  Christ  died  in  the  heroism  of 
personal  self-devotion  for  some  one 
favored  individual  between  whom 
and  death  he  thrust  Himself,  as  the 
victim  of  an  intrepid  friendship ;  for 
all  the  facts  of  the  case  are  known  to 
us  without  the  suggestion  of  any 
person  on  whose  individual  behalf 
He  laid  down  His  life.  There  remain 
open,  therefore,  only  these  alterna- 
34 


The  Extent  of  the  Atonement 

tives,  —  he  died  for  some,  or  he  died 
for  all :  a  limited  Atonement  or  a 
universal  Atonement. 

The  distinction  between  these  two 
modes  of  interpreting  the  Scriptures 
we  may  describe  as  the  great  divide 
in  distinctively  Christian  thought. 
It  would  take  a  volume  to  give  merely 
the  literary  and  ecclesiastical  history 
of  the  great  divide,  and  to  follow 
through  their  infinitely  interesting 
modifications  and  progressions  the 
movements  of  thought  on  either  side 
of  this  vast  question  :  "  For  whom  did 
Jesus  Christ  lay  down  His  life  ?  "  To 
a  thoughtful  and  clear-visioned  mind 
these  movements  are  infinitely  inter- 
esting. Such  minds  will  not  turn 
impatiently  from  the  intense  and 
anxious  reasonings  with  which  those 
who  lived  before  us  pondered  the 
Cross  and  sought  to  read  aright  its 
message  to  mankind.  Nor  will  such 
minds  disparage  the  controversial 
literature  on  the  Atonement  as  but 
35 


The  Extent  of  the  Atonement 

the  cobweb-weaving  and  the  hair- 
splitting of  men  who  had  become  the 
devotees  of  speculative  theology. 
For  one  finds  in  the  times  in  which 
we  live,  and  among  the  men  and 
women  whom  we  touch,  the  same 
anxious  reasonings  around  the  Cross ; 
the  same  longing  to  obtain  in  the 
Word  of  God  some  answer  to  the 
question  "  For  whom  did  Christ  die  ?  " 
which  will  meet  and  satisfy  all  other 
scriptural  statements  bearing  on  the 
destiny  of  man  under  the  government 
of  God.  The  great  divide  exists  to- 
day, and  on  the  one  side  or  on  the 
other  side  each  individual  mind  tends 
to  find  an  answer'which  mav  for  itself 

J 

best  satisfy  the  conditions  of  the  case. 
Is  it  a  limited  Atonement  ?  or  is  it  a 
universal  Atonement  ?  Did  He  die 
for  some  ?  or  did  He  die  for  all  ? 

To  those  who  have  not  thought 

their    way   down    into    the    depths 

of  this  subject,  and  who    have    not 

carefully  searched  their   Bibles  and 

36 


The  Extent  of  the  Atonement 

brought  together  all  that  they  con- 
tain, not  only  respecting  the  Death 
of  Christ,  but  also  respecting  the 
destiny  of  man ;  to  those  who  have 
lived  merely  upon  the  broad  surface  of 
the  general  idea  that  Christ  died  for 
mankind,  —  it  may  appear  a  most  un- 
accountable and  uncalled  for  circum- 
stance that  any  question  should  ever 
have  arisen  on  the  extent  of  the 
Atonement ;  that  any  one  ever  sup- 
posed the  Atonement  to  be  limited 
in  its  extent;  that  all  persons  have 
not  agreed  and  taken  for  granted 
that  the  Atonement  is  universal,  and 
that  Christ  died  for  all.  And  this 
surprise  that  any  have  hesitated  to 
affirm  a  universal  Atonement  deep- 
ens into  curiosity  under  the  state- 
ment that  from  a  very  early  period 
in  the  history  of  Christian  thought 
it  has  seemed  impossible  and  un- 
scriptural  to  multitudes  of  intelligent 
and  devout  persons  to  affirm,  in  plain, 
unguarded  words,  that  Christ  died 
37 


The  Extent  of  the  Atonement 

for  the  whole  world.  Curiosity  con- 
centrates itself  upon  the  reason  why 
this  is  so,  —  why  any  one  should  raise 
the  question  of  extent,  or  conceive 
the  idea  of  a  limited  Atonement 
What  suggests  the  thought  that  the 
Atonement  is  not  for  all  ?  An  an- 
swer should  be  given  to  satisfy  this 
entirely  proper  curiosity.  It  may  be 
given  in  one  sentence  :  The  concep- 
tion of  a  limited  Atonement  arises 
from  a  certain  mode  of  stating  the 
doctrine  of  Election.  It 'may  be  said 
with  some  degree  of  probability  that 
no  believer  in  the  New  Testament 
might  ever  have  thought  of  saying 
that  Christ  did  not  die  for  all,  except 
for  a  certain  interpretation  which 
was  placed,  very  early  in  the  history 
of  Christian  thought,  upon  those 
scriptures  of  the  New  Testament 
which  speak  of  God's  election  and 
predestination  of  men.  For,  leaving 
for  the  moment  out  of  view  the  scrip- 
tures speaking  of  Election,  the  natu- 
38 


The  Extent  of  the  Atonement 

ral  meaning  of  those  which  speak  of 
the  extent  of  the  Atonement  would 
plainly  appear  to  be  that  Christ 
died  for  all.  The  natural  meaning, 
for  example,  of  the  following  verses 
would  appear  to  be,  apart  from  any 
theory  to  the  contrary,  that  Jesus 
Christ  laid  down  His  life  for  the 
whole  human  race,  without  limit  or 
distinction  of  persons.  "  Jesus  Christ 
the  Righteous  is  the  propitiation  for 
our  sins,  and  not  for  ours  only,  but 
also  for  the  whole  world."  "  We  be- 
hold Him  Who  hath  been  made  a 
little  lower  than  the  angels,  even 
Jesus,  because  of  the  suffering  of 
death  crowned  with  glory  and  honor, 
that  by  the  grace  of  God  He  should 
taste  death  for  every  man."  If  one 
who  had  never  read  a  line  of  dog- 
matic theology  were  to  pick  up  a  slip 
of  paper  bearing  these  words,  it  is 
probable  that  they  would  suggest  to 
his  mind  an  Atonement  for  the  race, 
not  an  atonement  for  a  portion  of  the 
39 


The  Extent  of  the  Atonement 

race  only.  But  all  who  have  read  the 
Epistle  to  the  Romans,  more  espe- 
cially the  ninth  chapter  of  that  epis- 
tle, and  other  great  passages  bearing 
on  the  same  line,  are  aware  that  the 
New  Testament  teaches  God's  elec- 
tion of  men  quite  as  certainly  "as  it 
teaches  God's  redemption  of  the 
world  through  Christ.  But  what, 
one  asks,  have  these  Election  scrip- 
tures to  do  with  a  limited  Atone- 
ment ?  They  have  everything  to  do 
with  a  limited  Atonement  if  one 
places  upon  them  the  interpretation 
which,  from  early  times  down  to  this 
time,  has  been  placed  upon  them  by 
large  numbers  of  intelligent  and  de- 
vout persons.  Under  that  interpre- 
tation they  become  the  cause  from 
which  springs  the  fair  and  necessary 
conclusion  that  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
died  not  for  all  men,  but  only  for 
some  men.  Under  that  interpreta- 
tion they  become  the  barrier  to  pre- 
jvent  one  from  logically  holding  any 
40 


The  Extent  of  the  Atonement 

other  conclusion  than  that  Christ  did 
not,  in  a  real  sense,  die  for  all.  The 
interpretation  of  the  Election  scrip- 
tures to  which  we  refer  is  that  which 
regards  the  decree  of  God  as  uncon- 
ditional. By  the  unconditional  de- 
cree is  meant  that  God  eternally 
chose  or  elected  a  certain  portion  of 
the  race  unto  necessary  and  everlast- 
ing life  and  blessedness,  and  that  the 
remainder  of  the  human  race,  being 
not  included  in  the  scope  of  that 
eternal  decree,  is  necessarily  and 
everlastingly  excluded  from  the  life 
and  blessedness  contemplated  in  the 
decree.  This  decree  is  said  to  be 
unconditional,  in  that  they  who  are 
in  it  cannot  fall  out  of  it;  they  who 
are  out  of  it  cannot  come  into  it. 
But  what  connection  has  this  inter- 
pretation of  the  Election  scriptures 
with  the  Extent  of  our  Lord's  Atone- 
ment ?  A  vital  connection.  For  un- 
der this  interpretation  of  the  decree  as 
unconditional,  the  Atonement  is  the 
41 


The  Extent  of  the  Atonement 

step  taken  by  God,  not  to  redeem 
the  entire  fallen  race,  but  to  accom- 
plish the  salvation  of  that  portion 
of  the  race  which  by  this  uncon- 
ditional decree  He  has  eternally 
elected  unto  necessary  and  everlast- 
ing life.  In  other  words,  Christ  died 
for  the  unconditionally  elected,  and 
not  for  the  whole  world.  Those  who 
have  accepted  the  logical  conclusion 
that  the  Atonement  is  limited  in  its 
actual  effect  to  the  unconditionally 
elected,  do  also  claim  that  in  a  sense 
the  Atonement  may  be  regarded  as 
universal,  inasmuch  as  the  infinite 
value  of  the  Divine  Sacrifice  would 
make  it  sufficient,  potentially,  for  an 
infinite  number  of  human  souls ;  but 
the  natural  and  plain  sense  of  the 
words,  "  He  died  for  all,"  is  carefully 
modified  and  restricted  by  the  state- 
ment that  the  benefit  of  our  Lord's 
death  cannot  possibly  be  applied  to 
any  save  to  those  who  are  included  in 
the  decree  of  unconditional  election. 
42 


The  Extent  of  the  Atonement 

Clear  statements  of  this  position 
may  be  found  in  the  writings  of  Dr. 
Charles  Hodge,  as,  for  example,  in 
the  following  words :  "  There  is  a 
sense  in  which  Christ  died  for  all 
men.  He  died  sufficiently  for  all. 
It  follows  from  the  nature  of  the 
Covenant  of  Redemption,  as  pre- 
sented in  the  Bible,  that  Christ  did 
not  die  equally  for  all  mankind,  but 
that  He  gave  Himself  for  His  peo- 
ple, and  for  their  redemption."1  If 
one  dissents  from  this  conclusion,  it 
follows  not  that  he  dissents  from  the 
Election  scriptures,  nor  that  he  does 
not  consider  them  quite  so  truly  a 
part  of  God's  message  to  the  world 
as  the  texts  announcing  a  universal 
Atonement,  to  which  reference  has 
already  been  made.  The  Election 
scriptures  need  present  no  stum- 
bling-block to  the  mind  in  its  desire 
to  believe  a  universal  Atonement. 
One  may  accept  them  as  reverently 

1  Systematic  Theology,  vol.  ii.  pp.  547,  560. 
43 


The  Extent  of  the  Atonement 

and  as  gladly  as  one  accepts  the  four- 
teenth chapter  of  St.  John,  or  the 
twelfth  chapter  of  Hebrews.  Every 
fair  and  open  mind  will  discriminate 
between  dissent  from  anything  in  the 
Word  of  God,  and  dissent  from  cer- 
tain interpretations  which  by  men 
have  been  connected  with  certain 
portions  of  that  Word,  and  have  been 
regarded  as  authoritative  and  neces- 
sary interpretations.  If  the  Election 
scriptures  can  only  be  understood  to 
teach  an  unconditional  decree,  eter- 
nally electing  some,  eternally  repro- 
bating others,  who  are  respectively 
elected  or  reprobated,  not  for  any- 
thing in  themselves,  but  alone  at  the 
sovereign  pleasure  of  the  Most  High, 
then  it  is  not  easy  to  see  a  logical 
escape  from  the  doctrine  of  an  Atone- 
ment limited  to  the  elect ;  in  fact, 
some  may  prefer,  under  those  cir- 
cumstances, to  believe  the  limited 
Atonement,  inasmuch  as  the  very 
words  "  Universal  Atonement "  would 
44 


The  Extent  of  the  Atonement 

seem  to  mock  at  the  misery  of  the 
non-elect.  But  one  may  be  allowed 
to  hope  that  the  interpretation  just 
described  is  not  the  only  possible  in- 
terpretation of  the  Election  scrip- 
tures in  the  New  Testament  in 
accord  with  the  Scriptures  them- 
selves. One  may  study  that  which 
is  revealed  in  the  New  Testament 
concerning  the  Decree  of  God,  and 
find  nothing  that  affirms  the  destiny 
of  the  members  of  the  human  race 
to  be  unconditionally  determined  by 
that  decree.  Undoubtedly  one  finds 
in  the  New  Testament  Election  and 
Reprobation.  But  what  is  the  nature 
of  that  Election  ?  It  is  possible  (and 
in  full  conformity  with  Scripture)  to 
look  upon  it  as  that  eternal  plan  of 
love  which  dwelt  always  in  the  bosom 
of  the  Father  for  man  whom  He  loves; 
for  man,  who  is  the  offspring  of  His 
own  life.  The  Election  is  thus  the 
ideal  of  God  for  man,  that  every  mem- 
ber of  this  our  race  entering  into  the 
45 


The  Extent  of  the  Atonement 

world  should  be  in  this  world  (then 
contemplated  as  a  holy  and  unfal- 
len  world),  an  incarnate  image  of 
the  eternal  Son.  This  Election 
one  finds  in  the  New  Testament; 
the  Father's  eternal  choice  for  us, 
the  Father's  predestination  of  us 
(in  the  counsel  and  plan  of  His  own 
heart),  that  we  should  be  a  Christ-like 
race,  conformed  to  the  image  of  His 
Son.  When  the  primitive,  newly 
created  man  stood  in  godlike  splen- 
dor of  holiness  and  happiness  in  a 
holy  and  happy  world,  then  began  to 
be  realized  in  the  race  the  Election 
of  God ;  then  man  stood  before  God 
as  God's  child,  and  God  was  his 
Father,  and  God's  delight  was  in  him 
and  God's  hopes  were  centred  upon 
him,  and  God's  world  was  given  him 
for  a  home,  and  God's  banner  over 
him  was  love.  Then  came  the  dread 
catastrophe  of  sin,  of  man's  choice 
contrary  to  the  will  of  God,  the  first 
great  falling  of  the  creature  below 
46 


The  Extent  of  the  Atonement 

the  Election  and  choice  of  the  Crea- 
tor. Yet  in  that  catastrophe,  the 
beginning  of  human  sin,  there  was 
a  certain  godlike  dignity.  Man's 
power  to  sin,  —  that  is  to  say,  man's 
power  to  choose  against  God  or  with 
God, — was  the  great  inalienable  birth- 
right of  liberty  from  Him  Whose 
breath  was  the  life  of  man's  spirit. 
And  that  catastrophe,  working  itself 
out  in  the  stupendous  devastation  of 
a  sin-stricken  race,  has  never  moved 
the  heart  of  God  from  its  eternal 
choice,  its  supreme  Election.  The 
love  that  was  given  to  the  unfallen 
man  in  forms  of  fellowship,  still  pours 
itself  out  upon  the  fallen  man  in  the 
form  of  Atonement ;  and  the  Elec- 
tion of  the  Godhead,  an  election  of 
glory  and  love,  was  manifested  a 
second  time  as  in  a  new  creation, 
when,  in  the  fulness  of  time,  God 
sent  forth  His  Son,  born  of  a  wo- 
man, born  under  the  law,  to  redeem 
them  that  are  under  the  law ;  that  we, 
47 


The  Extent  of  the  Atonement 

a  race  of  sons  who  had  thrown  away 
our  sonship,  might  in  Christ  receive 
the  adoption  of  sons;  and,  because 
we  are  sons,  God  sent  forth  the 
spirit  of  His  Son  into  our  hearts,  cry- 
ing, "  Abba,  Father,"  declaring  in  our 
self-willed,  stubborn  hearts,  the  eter- 
nal choice  of  the  Father  for  His  chil- 
dren, that  we  should  be  conformed 
unto  the  image  of  His  Son.  This 
is  thought  to  be  a  scriptural  inter- 
pretation of  the  Election  declared  in 
the  New  Testament;  an  eternal  plan 
for  the  race,  conceived  in  the  Father's 
heart,  not  turned  aside  by  sin,  but 
announced  once  more  to  the  race  in 
the  Gospel  of  the  Divine  Sacrifice, 
and  made  possible  once  more  to  the 
race  in  Jesus  the  Righteous,  Who  is 
the  propitiation  for  our  sins,  and  not 
for  ours  only,  but  also  for  the  whole 
world.  If  this  be  the  Election,  what 
is  the  Reprobation  ?  If  this  be  the 
revelation  of  "the  riches  of  His  glory 
upon  vessels  of  mercy  which  He 
48 


The  Extent  of  the  Atonement 

afore  prepared  unto  glory,"  what  is 
His  reprobation  of  "vessels  of  wrath 
fitted  to  destruction  ? "  It  is  the 
right  of  a  holy  God  to  reject  vessels 
that  refuse  to  be  conformed  to  His 
purpose.  One  may  speak  of  the 
wrath  of  God  against  sin,  —  the 
wrath  of  holy  love,  in  the  same  breath 
with  which  one  speaks  of  universal 
Atonement. 

Some  say :  You  must  not  say 
universal  Atonement,  for  it  implies 
universal  salvation.  Would  to  God 
it  did  certainly  imply  universal  sal- 
vation !  Would  to  God  it  were  cer- 
tainly true  that  as  Christ  tasted 
death  for  every  man,  every  man  shall 
taste  life  through  Christ !  Would 
to  God  there  were  no  reason  to 
believe  that  one  soul  for  which 
Christ  died  shall  be  reprobate,  a 
vessel  of  wrath  fitted  to  destruction ; 
reprobate  before  the  face  of  God, 
not  because  the  love  that  redeemed 
it  is  taken  away,  not  because  the 

4  49 


The  Extent  of  the  Atonement 

Election  of  God  towards  it  is  other 
than  a  desire  for  its  greatness  and 
glory  and  peace,  but  because  the 
soul,  hardened  through  the  deceitful- 
ness  of  sin,  glorying  in  its  shame, 
plunging  into  darkness  away  from 
Light,  persists  unto  the  bitter  end 
in  treading  under  foot  the  Son  of 
God,  and  in  counting  the  Blood  of 
the  Covenant,  wherewith  it  was 
sanctified,  an  unholy  thing ! 

There  are  some  conclusions  which 
follow  from  a  belief  that  the  Atone- 
ment is  universal,  and  that  Christ 
tasted  death  for  every  man. 

a.  The  Universal  Influence  of  Sin 
and  Death.  "  By  one  man  sin  en- 
tered into  the  world,  and  death  by  sin, 
and  death  passed  upon  all  men,  for 
that  all  have  sinned."  "  He  tasted 
death  for  every  man."  A  universal 
condition  called  for  a  universal  Atone- 
ment. What  one  needed,  all  needed. 
This  is  the  great  leveller  of  human 
distinctions.  This  is  the  common 
5° 


The  Extent  of  the  Atonement 

ground  on  which  all  men  must  meet. 
Why  should  one  boast  himself  above 
another?  Why  should  one  scornful- 
ly condemn  another?  Are  we  not  all 
resting  in  the  one  hope  that  Christ 
died  for  us  ?  Are  we  not  all  needing 
the  same  Atonement  ?  Let  a  man 
then  lay  off  his  pride,  and  be  gen- 
tle before  men  and  humble  before 
God. 

b.  The    Universal    Obligation  to 
live   unto   Him.     "  For   the  love  of 
Christ  constraineth   us,  because   we 
thus  judge  that  if  one  died  for  all,  then 
were  all  dead,  and  that  He  died  for 
all,  that  they  which  live  should  not 
henceforth     live    unto     themselves, 
but  unto  Him  Which  died  for  them 
and  rose  again." 

c.  The  Universal  Importance  and 
Value   of   Human  Lives.     "  God  so 
loved  the  world  that   He  gave  his 
only   begotton    Son."      If    God    so 
loved  it,  what  shall   be    our   feeling 
toward  it?     What  shall  be  our  esti- 


The  Extent  of  the  Atonement 

mate  and  valuation  of  lives  in  the 
light  of  universal  Atonement  ?  "  It 
is  not  the  will  of  your  heavenly 
Father  that  one  of  these  little  ones 
shall  perish!"  Can  there  be,  then, 
a  fellowship  with  God  that  is  care- 
less of  man?  a  worship  of  God 
that  is  scornful  of  man  ?  a  love 
of  God  that  does  not  include  a 
broad  reverence  and  holy  compas- 
sion for  human  life  as  such,  because 
of  the  Redemption  ? 

d.  The  Universal  Right  of  Lives 
to  know  the  Gospel  of  their  Redemp- 
tion. When  He  Who  redeemed  the 
race  had  consummated  that  uni- 
versal Atonement,  He  stood  in  His 
risen  life  upon  the  verge  of  His 
Ascension,  and  from  His  finished 
work  He  drew  that  last  conclusion 
touching  the  right  of  a  redeemed 
race  to  know  of  its  Redemption: 

"  Thus  it  is  written,  that  the  Christ 
should  suffer,  and  rise  again  the  third 
day  from  the  dead ;  and  that  repentance 

52 


The  Extent  of  the  Atonement 

and  remission  of  sins  should  be  preached 
in  His  name  unto  all  the  nations.  Ye  are 
witnesses  of  these  things." 

"  Go  ye,  therefore,  and  make  disciples 
of  all  the  nations,  baptizing  them  into  the 
name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and 
of  the  Holy  Ghost,  teaching  them  to  ob- 
serve all  things  whatsoever  I  commanded 
you :  and  lo,  I  am  with  you  alway,  even 
unto  the  end  of  the  world." 


53 


Ill 

WHY    NOT    FORGIVENESS    WITHOUT 
SACRIFICE? 


55 


Knowing  the  judgment  of  God,  that  they  which 
commit  such  things  are  worthy  of  death. 

EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS. 

And  without  shedding  of  blood  is  no  remission. 
EPISTLE  TO  THE  HEBREWS. 

For  He  hath  made  Him  to  be  sin  for  us,  Who 
knew  no  sin;  that  we  might  be  made  the  righteous- 
ness of  God  in  Him. 

SECOND  EPISTLE  TO  THE  CORINTHIANS. 

God,  sending  His  own  Son  in  the  likeness  of 
sinful  flesh  and  as  an  offering  for  sin,  condemned 
sin  in  the  flesh  :  that  the  requirement  of  the  law 
might  be  fulfilled  in  us,  who  walk  not  after  the 
flesh,  but  after  the  spirit. 

EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS. 


Chapter  III 

Why  not  Forgiveness  without 
Sacrifice  ? 

IT  is  necessary  now  to  consider  a 
question  which  has  troubled  and  un- 
settled many  minds  disposed  to  be 
fair  and  desiring  to  attain  a  definite 
faith.  This  question,  raised  at  this 
point  in  the  study  of  the  Divine  Sacri- 
fice, appears  to  go  back  of  conclusions 
already  reached,  and  to  disturb  con- 
fidence in  the  validity  of  those  con- 
clusions. It  will  be  borne  in  mind 
that  two  conclusions  have  been 
reached  in  the  foregoing  chapters : 
first,  that  the  love  of  God  for  man  is 
the  cause  of  the  Atonement,  which 
is  the  supreme  expression  of  that 
love, —  not  that  God  loves  us  because 
Christ  died  for  us,  but  that  Christ 
57 


Forgiveness  without  Sacrifice 

died  for  us  because  God  loves  us ; 
secondly,  that  the  Atonement  con- 
sidered as  to  the  extent  of  its  refer- 
ence to  the  human  race  is  universal 
and  unlimited ;  that  Christ  died  for 
the  whole  world  without  distinction 
of  persons,  and  not  merely  for  a  select 
portion  of  the  race  appointed  unto  an 
inevitable  salvation  by  an  uncondi- 
tional decree.     These   are    the   two 
conclusions  which  have  been  reached, 
and  to  those  who  can  accept  them 
they  are  full  of  importance  and  of 
comfort.      They  present  to  the  mind 
God  standing  in  an  attitude  of  love 
toward  the  whole  race,  contemplating 
the  whole  race  with  an  eternal  pur- 
pose and  ideal  of  blessedness,  and  by 
means  of  Christ's  Atonement  creat- 
ing a  redeemed  condition  of  the  fallen 
race  in  which  the  attainment  of  the 
divine  ideal  is  made  at  least  a  possi- 
bility for  each  member  of  that  race. 
The  effect  of  these  conclusions  upon 
some  minds  is  to  heighten  immeasur- 


Forgiveness  without  Sacrifice 

ably  their  appreciation  of  the  Atone- 
ment as  an  expression  of  the  love  of 
God. 

But  at  this  stage,  when  we  are  dis- 
posed to  feel  that  we  have  found  the 
true  starting-point  from  which  to 
think  our  way  up  to  Jesus  Christ  and 
Him  crucified,  a  question  rises  before 
us  that  tends,  if  it  be  not  clearly  and 
fully  answered,  to  unsettle  confidence 
in  the  validity  of  those  conclusions 
which,  prior  to  the  arising  of  this 
question,  appeared  so  reasonable,  so 
satisfying,  so  scriptural,  and  so  pre- 
cious. This  question  is  on  the 
necessity  of  the  Atonement.  Why 
need  there  be  any  atonement  ?  If 
God  is  love,  as  has  been  so  positively 
affirmed,  why  should  there  be  any 
atonement  ?  Why  is  not  forgiveness 
without  sacrifice  more  worthy  of 
God,  and  more  credible  in  view  of  the 
alleged  character  of  God,  than  for- 
giveness conditioned  upon  sacrifice, 
and  upon  the  sacrifice  of  One  Who  is 
59 


Forgiveness  without  Sacrifice 

innocent  ?  This  question  is  reason- 
able. It  is  not  to  be  dismissed  lightly 
or  sternly,  —  lightly,  as  being  a  flip- 
pant and  captious  objection  ;  sternly, 
as  raising  a  doubt  man  has  no  right  to 
raise.  Man  has  a  right  to  raise  that 
doubt  and  to  ask  that  question :  "Why 
not  forgiveness  without  sacrifice  ?  " 
It  is  a  question  germane  to  the  sub- 
ject under  discussion.  It  is  a  question 
of  the  utmost  value  and  importance, 
because,  from  whatever  motive  it  may 
be  asked,  whether  from  desire  for  in- 
struction or  from  desire  to  assail  the 
main  position  of  evangelical  religion, 
it  furnishes  an  opportunity  for  the 
believer  in  the  Atonement  to  disown 
some  opinions  erroneously  attributed 
to  him,  and  to  state  clearly  and  scrip- 
turally  that  which  he  does  believe 
concerning  the  grounds  on  which  the 
sacrifice  of  Christ  may  be  regarded 
as  a  necessity. 

The  propriety,  reasonableness,  and 
force  of  this  question  :  "  Why  not  for- 
do 


Forgiveness  without  Sacrifice 

giveness  without  sacrifice  ?  "  are  seen 
when,  by  a  process  of  analysis,  we 
note  the  difference  between  this  ques- 
tion and  other  doubts  which  are  fre- 
quently raised  against  the  Christian 
doctrine  of  the  Atonement.  This 
question, "  Why  not  forgiveness  with- 
out sacrifice  ?  "  is  not  a  denial  of  sin 
as  such.  The  sinfulness  of  sin  is  not 
disputed.  Those  who  doubt  the  ne- 
cessity of  the  Atonement  may  be  in 
no  doubt  as  to  the  moral  distinction 
between  good  and  evil.  Some  who 
have  discarded  the  Atonement  have 
been  eminent  in  morality,  keen  in  the 
discernment  of  right  and  wrong. 
Nor  is  this  question  a  denial  that  sin 
calls  for  punishment.  It  assumes 
God's  power  to  forgive  sin,  and  that 
assumption  implies  as  the  antecedent 
of  forgiveness  God's  right  to  punish 
sin.  The  right  to  punish  is  not 
denied.  The  justice  of  punishment 
as  the  proper  judicial  sequence  of  sin 
is  not  denied.  The  question  is  raised 
61 


Forgiveness  without  Sacrifice 

on  another  issue,  namely,  whether 
God  may  not  at  His  pleasure  remit 
punishment  by  simple  forgiveness 
without  sacrifice.  Nor  is  this  ques- 
tion a  denial  that  Christ  died.  It 
does  not  necessarily  assail  the  historic 
data  which  point  to  Calvary.  It  does 
not  decline  to  admit  that  such  a  Being 
as  Jesus  lived  and  labored  in  Pales- 
tine, and  was  condemned  and  cruci- 
fied under  Pontius  Pilate.  It  does 
not  refuse  to  join  the  unnumbered 
multitude  of  human  minds  grouped 
in  veneration  around  the  Cross.  Ad- 
mitting the  death,  it  merely^  assigns 
to  it  a  significance  other  than  that  of 
the  Divine  Sacrifice.  Nor  is  this  ques- 
tion a  denial  under  all  circumstances 
that  Christ  was  competent  to  be  in 
His  death  a  sacrifice  for  sin.  The 
denial  of  the  Atonement  may  of 
course  be  the  result  of  antecedent 
doubt  concerning  the  divinity  of 
Christ.  But  doubts  concerning  the 
Atonement  may  and  do  exist  in 
62 


Forgiveness  without  Sacrifice 

minds  that  have  not  called  in  ques- 
tion the  divinity  of  Christ.  Such 
doubts  spring  from  a  cause  quite 
other  than  that  of  uncertainty  as  to 
the  competency  of  Jesus  to  offer  a 
sacrifice  for  the  world.  Such  doubts 
call  in  question  the  propriety  of  the 
Atonement  as  an  act  of  God.  They 
raise  the  issue  whether  it  is  consistent 
with  the  glorious  and  perfect  charac- 
ter of  God  to  condition  the  forgive- 
ness of  man  upon  the  sacrifice  of  the 
holy  and  beautiful  Christ.  This  is  a 
doubt  of  the  Atonement  inspired  by 
reverence  for  God.  By  this  process 
of  analysis  it  must  appear  that  the 
question, u  Why  not  forgiveness  with- 
out sacrifice  ? "  is  not  flippant,  im- 
proper, or  essentially  hostile  to  God, 
but  serious,  reasonable,  and  extremely 
important.  If  it  were  a  question 
flippant  or  avowedly  hostile  to  God, 
if  it  were  a  denial  of  sin,  or  a  denial 
that  sin  calls  for  punishment,  or  a 
denial  that  Christ  died,  or  a  denial  of 
63 


Forgiveness  without  Sacrifice 

Christ's  divinity,  it  could  be  dealt 
with  fairly,  of  course,  and  kindly,  of 
course,  but  with  much  less  apprehen- 
siveness  of  its  power  to  unsettle 
evangelical  belief.  We  could  ap- 
peal to  the  instinct  of  human  con- 
sciousness, to  the  facts  of  experience, 
to  the  annals  of  history,  and  thus 
sufficiently  maintain  our  position. 
There  are  objections  levelled  against 
the  Atonement  which,  like  arrows 
shot  against  a  granite  cliff,  shatter 
themselves  without  scarring  the  cliff. 
But  this  objection  is  not  one  of  those. 
This  may  appeal  to  minds  which 
luminously  discern  between  good  and 
evil,  which  admit  the  justice  of  pun- 
ishment as  the  sequence  of  sin,  which 
worship  Christ's  divinity.  This 
touches  a  point  antecedent  to  all 
conclusions  upon  the  nature  and  ex- 
tent of  the  Atonement.  This  inquires 
into  the  morality  of  a  Being  who  could 
demand  such  a  sacrifice  as  a  condition 
precedent  to  the  forgiveness  of  sin. 
64 


Forgiveness  without  Sacrifice 

In  the  previous  chapter  upon  the 
Extent  of  the  Atonement,  the  opinion 
is  expressed  that  no  one  would  have 
thought  of  doubting  that  the  Bible 
represents  Christ  as  dying  for  the 
whole  world,  but  for  a  certain  inter- 
pretation which  was  connected  with 
certain  texts  of  the  Bible  very  early 
in  the  history  of  Christian  thought. 
The  texts  referring  to  God's  election 
of  men  were  interpreted  to  mean  an 
unconditional  decree,  absolutely  de- 
termining the  destiny  of  individuals, 
whereby  some  were  appointed  unto 
an  inevitable  salvation,  and  others, 
not  included  in  that  decree,  were 
negatively  appointed  unto  an  equally 
inevitable  damnation.  This  inter- 
pretation of  these  texts  was  strongly 
pressed  in  the  past,  and  was  widely 
acquiesced  in,  as  being  the  only  right 
interpretation  of  the  Election  scrip- 
tures. As  a  result,  the  thought  of 
a  limited  Atonement  followed ;  that 
Christ  died,  not  to  redeem  the  entire 
5  65 


forgiveness  without  bacrmce 

race,  but  to  secure  the  salvation  of  an 
elect  portion  of  the  race. 

It  has  also  been  pointed  out  in  a 
previous  chapter  that  in  the  process 
of  religious  thought  the  teaching  has 
been  announced  and  has  widely  pre- 
vailed, that  God  the  Father  loves  us 
because  Christ  died  for  us ;  that  the 
anger  of  the  Father  was  raised  against 
man  and  was  about  to  descend  upon 
man,  when  the  gentle,  loving,  and 
heroic  Christ  flung  Himself  between 
the  stern  Father  and  guilty  man, 
received  the  outburst  of  wrath  on  His 
own  innocent  head,  and  that  the 
Father,  appeased  by  the  blood  of  this 
self-sacrificing  Victim,  now  consents 
to  love  us  for  the  sake  of  Him  Who 
became  our  champion  and  Who  per- 
ished on  our  behalf.  Thus  there 
grew  up  in  Christian  thought  the 
suggestion  that  the  Christian  Gospel 
distinguishes  between  the  purpose  of 
the  Father  and  the  purpose  of  the  Son 
in  dealing  with  the  human  race  ;  that 
66 


Forgiveness  without  Sacrifice 

the  Father,  being  angry,  wanted  to 
destroy  us  for  our  sins,  but  the  Son, 
being  lovely,  sympathetic,  and  hero- 
ically unselfish,  interposed,  and  by  a 
tragic  self-surrender  to  the  Father's 
wrath  turned  that  wrath  away.  It 
is  safe  to  say  that  this  mode  of 
stating  the  gospel,  —  a  mode  which 
would  apparently  imperil  belief  in  the 
unity  of  the  Godhead, —  might  never 
have  become  current  if  all  whose 
duty  it  is  to  guide  religious  thought 
had  kept  themselves  humbly  and 
obediently  close  to  the  Bible,  which 
announces  in  language  no  man  need 
misunderstand :  "  We  believe  and  do 
testify,  that  the  Father  sent  the  Son 
to  be  the  Saviour  of  the  world,"  and 
"  God  so  loved  the  world  that  He  gave 
His  only  begotten  Son,  that  whoso- 
ever believeth  in  Him  should  not 
perish,  but  have  everlasting  life."  It 
would  be  difficult  to  account  for  the 
extent  to  which  the  question,  "  Why 
not  forgiveness  without  sacrifice  ?  " 
67 


Forgiveness  without  Sacrifice 

has  operated  as  a  barrier  to  faith 
without  referring,  respectfully  and 
with  moderation,  to  the  prominence 
once  given  in  evangelistic  teaching 
to  the  doctrine  of  the  Unconditional 
Decree,  and  to  the  idea  (incorporated 
alike  in  prose  and  in  poetry)  of  the 
wrathful  Father  appeased  by  the 
merciful  Son. 

That  the  idea  of  an  unconditional 
decree  of  Election  adds  force  to  the 
claim  that  forgiveness  should  take 
place  without  sacrifice  will  appear 
upon  reflection.  If  it  be  true  that 
the  sovereign  pleasure  of  God  has 
decreed  the  inevitable  salvation  and 
blessedness  of  a  portion  of  the  race, 
appointing  them  thereto  not  because 
of  any  worthiness  in  themselves,  but 
wholly  as  an  exhibition  of  the  right 
of  sovereignty  and  the  purpose  of 
love,  and  if  for  the  same  august  end 
of  sovereignty  the  rest  of  the  race, 
excluded  from  that  decree,  is  doomed 
to  an  inevitable  damnation,  he  who 
68 


Forgiveness  without  Sacrifice 

claims  forgiveness  without  sacrifice 
is  inclined  to  ask  why  this  situation 
should  have  its  terrific  simplicity  dis- 
turbed by  the  introduction  of  Christ 
as  an  innocent  and  bloody  sacrifice  ? 
On  whose  behalf,  it  is  asked,  could 
such  a  sacrifice  be  required?  To 
whose  advantage  could  it  inure  ? 
Not  to  the  damned,  for  they  are 
damned  not  first  of  all  in  their  own 
right  and  by  their  own  misdeeds,  but 
first  of  all  by  exclusion  from  an  un- 
conditional decree  antedating  their 
existence.  And  why,  it  is  still  fur- 
ther asked,  should  the  elect  require 
atonement  if  their  election  be  the  out- 
come of  God's  "  mere  free  grace  and 
love,  without  any  foresight  of  faith 
or  good  works,  or  perseverance  in 
either  of  them,  or  any  other  thing  in 
the  creature,  as  conditions  or  causes 
moving  Him  thereunto,  and  all  to 
the  praise  of  His  glorious  grace "  ? 
Why,  it  is  asked  (not  by  persons  of 
flippant  temper  or  hostile  spirit,  but 
69 


Forgiveness  without  Sacrifice 

by  those  who  seek  a  basis  for  their 
faith),  if  men  are  lost  and  saved  on 
these  grounds,  is  it  not  more  merci- 
ful and  consistent  with  God  to  spare 
the  non-elect  the  torment  of  witness- 
ing an  atonement  in  whose  efficacy 
they  cannot  share,  and  to  spare  Christ 
the  misery  of  enduring  supreme 
humiliation  for  those  who,  by  a  decree 
of  election,  were  inevitably  saved 
from  all  eternity  ?  This  is  the  inquiry 
of  some  minds  that  would  fain  be 
evangelical  believers ;  and  the  rights 
of  men  seeking  for  a  Biblical  faith  in 
Christ  as  a  Saviour,  justify  the  state- 
ment of  their  difficulty,  and  the  re- 
spectful intimation  of  its  possible 
cause. 

It  will  also  be  seen  that  the  idea, 
once  so  prevalent  and  so  prominent, 
of  the  wrathful  Father  appeased  by 
the  merciful  Son,  may  have  operated 
to  strengthen  the  claim  that  forgive- 
ness without  sacrifice  is  more  cred- 
ible, because  more  consonant  with  the 
70 


Forgiveness  without  Sacrifice 

glorious  and  perfect  character  of  God 
as  a  God  of  love  than  forgiveness 
conditioned  on  the  sacrifice  of  the 
innocent.  If  Christian  literature  and 
Christian  pulpits  have  represented 
God  the  Father  as  burning  with  a 
wrathful  purpose  to  destroy  man  for 
his  sins,  and,  being  interrupted  in 
that  purpose  by  the  intervention  of 
the  holy  and  compassionate  Son,  as 
seizing  upon  that  spotless  and  un- 
complaining victim  and  wreaking  on 
him  the  vengeance  which  has  its 
thirst  slaked  with  Christ's  blood, — the 
rejection  of  the  Atonement  by  some 
persons  of  intelligence  is  not  unlikely. 
Wherever  this  form  of  stating  the 
Atonement  gains  ground,  it  tends  to 
raise  in  some  minds  not  hostile  to 
God,  but  jealous  rather  to  defend  the 
glory  and  purity  of  God,  some  most 
disturbing  and  unsettling  objections, 
all  of  which  appear  to  strengthen  the 
probability  of  forgiveness  without 
sacrifice. 

71 


Forgiveness  without  Sacrifice 

It  is  objected,  to  the  idea  of  an 
angry  Father's  wrath  being  appeased 
by  the  blood  of  the  innocent  Son, 
that  such  an  atonement,  if  offered, 
would  be  ineffective,  inasmuch  as  the 
innocent  is  represented  as  being 
punished,  while  the  guilty  escape. 
It  is  objected  that  such  an  atonement 
prevents  God  forever  from  punishing 
a  human  being,  inasmuch  as  having 
taken  vengeance  on  one  Being  for 
human  offences,  He  has  no  right  to 
demand  punishment  a  second  time 
for  the  same  offences.  It  is  objected 
that  Christ's  sufferings,  in  view  of 
His  undoubted  innocency,  are  an  ar- 
bitrary and  needless  infliction,  which 
reveals  on  the  part  of  God  a  vindictive 
and  sanguinary  temper,  inconsistent 
with  the  character  of  a  Holy  Being. 
It  is  objected  that  our  own  pre-sup- 
position  of  the  authority  of  God,  as 
well  as  of  His  mercy,  makes  it  neces- 
sary to  believe  that  He  has  both  the 
ability  and  the  desire  to  forgive  sins 
72 


Forgiveness  without  Sacrifice 

without  sacrifice ;  that  we  cannot 
imagine  God  to  be  less  noble  and 
generous  than  a  man,  who,  having 
been  injured,  displays  magnanimity, 
and  freely,  unconditionally  forgives 
him  who  has  don&  the  injury,  and 
who  is  incapable  of  repairing  the  in- 
jury he  has  done.  'It  has  been  known 
that  a  man  who,  in  a  fit  of  passion, 
struck  another  and  put  out  his  eye, 
committing  thus  an  injury  he  could 
not  repair,  was  truly  and  uncondition- 
ally forgiven  by  his  injured  com- 
panion. Can  we  suppose,  it  is  asked, 
that  such  magnanimity  in  a  man  is 
more  godlike  than  God  Himself? 
Are  we  not,  then,  driven  to  reject  the 
Atonement,  and  to  believe  instead  in 
forgiveness  without  sacrifice  ? 

Of  course  these  objections  are,  to 
a  large  extent,  removed  from  the 
mind  of  a  thoughtful  and  reasonable 
man  the  moment  he  is  shown  that 
they  rest  on  an  interpretation  of  the 
Bible  teachingof  the  Divine  Sacrifice, 
73 


Forgiveness  without  Sacrifice 

which  need  not  be  regarded  as  shut- 
ting out  other  interpretations.  If  the 
Bible  can  only  be  regarded  as  teach- 
ing that  the  Father  is  appeased  by 
the  death  of  the  Son,  then  these 
foregoing  objections  appear  to  be 
unanswerable.  But  when  it  is  seen 
that  such  interpretations  are  not 
necessary  interpretations,  but  that 
one  may  hold,  with  the  simple  lan- 
guage of  the  Record,  that  the  Father 
sent  the  Son,  and  commended  His 
love  to  us  in  so  doing,  that  the  Son 
came  in  holy  willingness  as  the  su- 
preme manifestation  of  the  Father's 
purpose,  and  that,  in  the  unity  of  the 
Godhead,  the  loving  purpose  of  the 
Father  to  redeem  and  the  loving  act 
of  the  Son  in  redemption  are  but  two 
inseparable  sides  of  one  idea;  when 
this  is  shown  to  be  an  idea  conform- 
able with  Scripture,  then  to  a  very 
large  extent  the  foregoing  objections 
are  removed  from  a  reasonable  mind. 
There  is  no  longer  any  occasion  to 
74 


Forgiveness  without  Sacrifice 

call  in  question  the  morality  of  God 
in  exacting  suffering  from  an  innocent 
Being  to  satisfy  anger  stirred  by  the 
sins  of  the  guilty.  Such  a  conception 
of  God  vanishes  like  a  grim  nocturnal 
shadow  before  the  dawn,  and  in  the 
calm  and  holy  light  of  truth  one  sees 
simply  these  three  things :  the  holy 
love  of  God  the  Father  forthe  beloved 
race  of  mankind ;  the  holy  wrath  of 
God  the  Righteous  against  sin  as  an 
intolerable  condition  in  the  universe, 
calling,  on  moral  grounds,  for  its 
condemnation  in  the  punishment  of 
those  who  commit  it ;  the  holy  Sacri- 
fice of  Christ  the  God-man  to  meet 
on  behalf  of  a  beloved  but  sinful  race 
that  inevitable  moral  demand  for  the 
judgment  and  condemnation  of  sin. 

In  the  calm,  holy  light  of  Bible 
truth,  where  stand  revealed  these 
three  inseparable  ideas :  God  the 
Loving,  desiring  the  best  for  man ; 
God  the  Righteous,  condemning,  by 
the  moral  necessity  of  His  Being,  sin 
75 


Forgiveness  without  Sacrifice 

as  an  intolerable  element  in  the  uni- 
verse ;  God  the  Sacrifice,  enduring  in 
Himself,  by  obedience  unto  death, 
that  necessary  condemnation  of  sin 
on  behalf  of  a  beloved  race,  —  in 'the 
light  of  this  truth  we  begin  to  read  an 
answer  to  this  great  question  :  Why 
not  forgiveness  without  sacrifice? 
The  answer  is  this  :  Because  of  that 
moral  necessity  in  the  Nature  of  God 
which  calls  for  the  condemnation  of 
sin.  It  cannot  be  necessary  to  defend 
with  argument  the  proposition  of 
such  a  moral  necessity  in  the  Nature 
of  God  as  calls  for  the  condemnation 
of  sin.  To  some  extent  we  are  con- 
scious of  that  moral  necessity  in 
ourselves,  not  only  in  moments  of 
disgust  and  loathing  following  an 
evil  indulgence,  but  also,  and  far  more 
surely,  in  moments  of  spiritual 
strength  and  vision,  when,  lifted  near 
to  God,  we  have  discerned,  as  from 
His  side,  the  goodness  of  good  and 
the  sinf  ulness  of  sin.  To  some  extent 
76 


Forgiveness  without  Sacrifice 

we  are  conscious  of  that  moral  neces- 
sity as  confessed  in  the  life  of  the 
community  and  of  the  nation  in  its  un- 
dying struggle  after  public  righteous- 
ness, its  eternal  condemnation  of 
public  sin.  But  when  we  lift  our 
thought  to  God  the  Righteous,  the 
existence  of  a  moral  necessity  in  His 
Nature  calling  for  the  condemnation 
of  sin  becomes  an  axiom,  a  self- 
evident  proposition  transcending 
demonstration.  Apart  from  it,  God 
the  Righteous  is  unthinkable.  For 
there  are  but  four  attitudes  possible 
in  any  being  toward  sin,  —  ignorance, 
indifference,  consent,  condemnation. 
God  the  Righteous  cannot  be  igno- 
rant; God  the  Righteous  cannot  be 
indifferent ;  God  the  Righteous  can- 
not consent ;  God  the  Righteous 
must  condemn,  must  under  the  moral 
necessity  of  His  Being.  But  how  is 
condemnation  to  be  expressed  ?  In 
two  ways  only  is  it  expressible  to  man 
on  the  part  of  God, —  through  precept 
77 


Forgiveness  without  Sacrifice 

and  through  penalty.  When  the  first 
fails  there  remains  only  the  second. 
God  condemned  sin  by  precept  to  the 
unfallen  world  :  "  Eat  not  of  it,  for  in 
the  day  when  thou  eatest  thereof,  thou 
shalt  surely  die."  The  wrath  of  God 
was  revealed  from  heaven  against  all 
sin,  all  ungodliness  and  unrighteous- 
ness of  men.  The  judgment  of  God 
was  known,  that  they  which  commit 
such  things  are  worthy  of  death. 
The  condemnation  of  sin  through 
precept  was  universally  published ;  it 
was  written  in  the  natural  conscience, 
it  was  spoken  in  the  law.  God  was 
true  to  the  moral  necessity  of  His  Na- 
ture in  openly  condemning  sin  and 
warning  against  it.  In  vain ;  the  free- 
dom of  man  challenged  the  precept 
of  God.  "  By  one  man  sin  entered 
into  the  world,  and  death  by  sin ;  and 
death  passed  upon  all  men,  for  that  all 
have  sinned."  The  condemnation  of 
sin  by  penalty  became,  therefore,  in 
the  failure  of  precept,  a  moral  neces- 
78 


Forgiveness  without  Sacrifice 

sity  in  the  nature  of  God  the 
Righteous.  He  could  not  do  other- 
wise. There  is  nothing  of  passion, 
nothing  of  revenge,  nothing  of  hatred, 
nothing  of  sanguinary  desire  in  God's 
punishing  of  sin.  The  punishment 
of  sin  is  the  condemnation  of  sin  by 
penalty,  its  condemnation  by  precept 
having  failed.  Therefore  to  suggest 
forgiveness  without  sacrifice  is  to 
suggest  a  knowledge  of  sin  on  God's 
part  unaccompanied  by  His  condem- 
nation of  it.  If  it  be  true  that  there 
are  but  four  attitudes  toward  sin,  — 
ignorance,  indifference,  consent,  or 
condemnation,  —  forgiveness  without 
sacrifice  would  mean,  apparently,  sin 
without  condemnation,  leaving  the 
alternatives  of  ignorance,  of  indiffer- 
ence, or  of  consent.  Well  has  the 
Scripture  said  :  "  Without  shedding 
of  blood  there  is  no  remission." 

But  if  all  that  has  been  thus  far 
said  has  somewhat  cleared  the  sub- 
ject, there  will  remain  in  some  minds 
79 


Forgiveness  without  Sacrifice 

a  serious  question  unanswered. 
Granting  all  that  has  been  claimed 
in  this  chapter,  how,  in  what  sense, 
does  the  sacrifice  of  Christ  atone 
for  sin  ?  Thus :  the  Holy  Sacrifice 
of  the  God-Man  meets,  on  behalf 
of  a  beloved  but  sinful  race,  that 
necessary  moral  demand  in  the 
Nature  of  God  the  Righteous  for 
the  judgment  and  condemnation  of 
sin.  "  God,  sending  His  own  Son 
in  the  likeness  of  sinful  flesh,  and  as 
an  offering  for  sin,  condemned  sin  in 
the  flesh,  that  the  requirement  of  the 
law  (that  is,  the  moral  necessity 
which  exists  in  God's  Nature,  that 
sin  shall  be  condemned  before  it  is 
forgiven)  might  be  fulfilled  in  us, 
who  walk  not  after  the  flesh,  but 
after  the  Spirit."  Here  is  the  heart 
of  the  Gospel  of  the  Divine  Sacrifice. 
A  moral  necessity  in  the  Nature  of 
God  requires  sin's  condemnation. 
The  proclaiming  of  that  condem- 
nation in  precept  failed.  It  failed 
80 


Forgiveness  without  Sacrifice 

through  the  inalienable  freedom  of 
man.  There  remained  only  pen- 
alty. Sin  must  be  condemned  unto 
death  before  it  can  be  forgiven. 
The  judgment  of  God  is  that  they 
which  commit  such  things  are 
worthy  of  death.  And  the  tender 
love  of  God  has  for  us  men,  and  for 
our  salvation,  met,  through  Christ, 
that  moral  necessity  in  the  nature 
of  God's  righteousness  which  com- 
pels that  sin  be  condemned  unto 
death  ere  it  can  be  forgiven.  The 
Divine  Sacrifice,  the  Death  of  Christ, 
is  God's  way  of  love  to  meet  the 
moral  demand  of  His  own  Being. 
The  Death  of  Christ  is  God's  con- 
demnation of  sin.  Christ  becoming 
obedient  unto  death,  therein  consents 
to  that  law  of  righteousness  in  God's 
Nature  which  condemns  sin.  That 
condemnation  of  sin  was  made 
on  behalf  of  the  whole  race ;  He 
tasted  death,  He  fulfilled  the  law  of 
righteousness,  for  every  man.  And 
6  81 


Forgiveness  without  Sacrifice 

now  no  obstacle  remains  in  the  path 
of  God's  forgiveness  of  sins  but  one, 
—  the  will  of  each  individual  man. 
Will  the  individual  person  identify 
himself  with  Christ  in  His  Death 
by  believing  on  Him  as  the  Divine 
Sacrifice  for  sins  ?  Will  he  begin 
to  do  this  by  the  act  of  faith,  that 
is,  by  voluntarily  uniting  himself  to 
Christ  in  His  obedience  to  the  con- 
demnation of  sin,  and  by  rising 
with  Him  into  newness  of  life,  hence- 
forth to  walk  not  after  the  flesh,  but 
after  the  Spirit  ?  Will  he  glorify 
the  righteousness  of  God  in  the 
condemnation  of  sin  by  this  identi- 
fying of  himself  with  the  Divine 
Sacrifice  ?  Or  will  he  turn  away  from 
the  Christ  hard  in  heart,  proud  in 
spirit,  trusting  in  his  own  righteous- 
ness, venturing  to  believe  that  God 
will  deny  His  Nature  by  forgiving 
sin  without  the  solemn  consent  of 
the  human  will,  in  the  act  of  faith,  to 
the  condemnation  of  sin  by  the  Death 
82 


Forgiveness  without  Sacrifice 

of  Christ?  Salvation  appears  to  de- 
pend on  this  decision.  Christ  is  our 
Shelter  from  the  condemnation  of  sin. 
Disbelieving  Him,  we  invite  the  pen- 
alty of  sin  upon  ourselves.  It  is  well 
to  hear  His  own  words,  and  to  take 
them  at  their  full  value ;  "  He  that 
believeth  on  Him  is  not  judged :  He 
that  believeth  not  hath  been  judged 
already,  because  he  hath  not  believed 
on  the  Name  of  the  Only  Begotten 
Son  of  God." 


IV 

THE  SORROW  OF  CHRIST  IN   HIS 
SACRIFICE 


A  Man  of  Sorrows. 

PROPHECY  OF  ISAIAH. 

Then  cometh  Jesus  unto  Gethsemane,  and 
began  to  be  sorrowful  and  sore  troubled.  Then 
saith  He  unto  them,  My  soul  is  exceeding  sor- 
rowful, even  unto  death. 

GOSPEL  OF  ST.  MATTHEW. 

Father,  if  Thou  be  willing,  remove  this  cup 
from  Me  ;  nevertheless,  not  My  Will,  but  Thine, 
be  done. 

GOSPEL  OF  ST.  LUKE. 

Ye  shall  drink  indeed  of  My  cup. 

GOSPEL  OF  ST.  MATTHEW. 

That  I  may  know  Him,  and  the  fellowship  of 
His  sufferings. 

EPISTLE  TO  THE  PHILIPPIANS. 


86 


Chapter   IV 

The  Sorrow  of  Christ  in  His 
Sacrifice 

IT  may  be  profitable,  at  this  point, 
to  review  in  outline  the  ground 
already  traversed. 

In  entering  upon  a  study  of  the 
Gospel  of  the  Divine  Sacrifice,  we 
sought  a  starting-point  from  which 
to  think  our  way  up  to  Jesus  Christ 
and  Him  crucified.  We  found  what 
we  sought  in  the  proposition:  The 
Atonement  not  the  cause  of  God's 
Love,  but  Love  the  cause  of  the 
Atonement ;  not,  God  loves  us  be- 
cause Christ  died  for  us,  but  Christ 
died  for  us  because  God  loves  us. 
The  Atonement  was  seen  to  be  the 
supreme  expression  of  God's  eternal 
love  for  man  ;  and  the  Unity  of  the 
Godhead  was  seen  to  be  manifested 
87 


Sorrow  of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice 

in  the  oneness  of  the  Father's  pur- 
pose in  sending  the  Son  to  be  the 
Saviour  of  the  world,  with  the  purpose 
of  the  Son  in  coming  to  redeem  the 
world.  From  that  starting-point  we 
have  made  two  considerable  advances 
toward  a  reverential  and  humble  inter- 
pretation of  the  Divine  Sacrifice.  We 
have  investigated  the  Atonement  as  to 
the  extent  of  its  reference  to  mankind, 
and  as  to  the  necessity  for  its  occur- 
rence as  a  condition  precedent  to  the 
forgiveness  of  sins.  As  to  the  extent 
of  the  Atonement  in  its  reference  to 
mankind,  we  conclude  in  the  light 
of  Scripture,  that  it  is  universal  and 
not  limited ;  that  Christ  died  as  the 
Redeemer  of  the  whole  world  with- 
out distinction  of  persons,  and  not 
merely  to  secure  the  salvation  of  a 
selected  portion  of  the  human  race. 
As  to  the  necessity  for  the  Atone- 
ment, as  a  condition  precedent  to 
the  forgiveness  of  sins,  we  have 
asked  a  serious  practical  question  — 
88 


Sorrow  of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice 

Why  not  forgiveness  without  sacri- 
fice?—  and  have  thus  answered  it: 
Because  of  a  moral  necessity  in  the 
Nature  of  God  the  Righteous,  calling 
for  the  condemnation  of  sin  before 
they  who  have  committed  sin  can  be 
forgiven.  We  pointed  out  that  there 
appear  to  be  but  four  possible  atti- 
tudes toward  sin  which  can  be  taken 
by  a  rational  being,  —  ignorance,  in- 
difference, consent,  or  condemnation. 
God  the  Righteous  cannot  be  igno- 
rant ;  He  cannot  be  indifferent ;  He 
cannot  consent ;  He  must,  therefore, 
by  the  moral  necessity  of  His  Being, 
pronounce  upon  sin  the  judgment  of 
condemnation.  We  stated  that  the 
condemnation  of  sin  on  the  part  of 
God  the  Righteous  is  expressible  to 
man  in  two  ways,  —  by  precept  and 
by  penalty;  that  the  condemnation 
of  sin  by  precept  was  God's  first 
method,  when,  to  an  unfallen  race, 
still  standing  before  Him  in  the 
strength  and  beauty  of  primeval 
89 


Sorrow  of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice 

innocence,  He  gave  the  clear  warn- 
ing that  sin  is  an  intolerable  evil  in 
His  sight.  We  recalled  the  fact  that 
the  freedom  of  man  challenged  the 
precept  of  God  by  insisting  upon  the 
exercise  of  liberty  in  choices  con- 
trary to  the  will  of  God,  thereby 
precipitating  into  human  experience 
a  condition  of  sin.  God's  condem- 
nation of  sin  by  precept  having 
failed  to  deter  man  from  making  sin 
his  own  experience,  and  sin  being 
forthwith  a  fact  in  human  life,  God's 
further  condemnation  of  it  by  pen- 
alty was  inevitable  under  the  moral 
necessity  in  God's  Nature  by  which 
He  cannot  consent  to  the  existence 
of  this  intolerable  evil.  Death  came 
by  sin,  as  its  penalty,  its  wages,  a 
bodily  and  a  spiritual  doom,  devel- 
oped in  the  nature  of  the  case 
through  the  antagonism  of  free 
beings  to  a  Divine  order  of  life. 
But  that  moral  necessity  in  God 
which  requires  that  sin  shall  be 
90 


Sorrow  of  Christ  in   His  Sacrifice 

condemned  through  penalty  ere  it 
can  be  forgiven,  cannot  be  separated, 
even  in  our  thought,  from  that 
eternal  love  in  God  which  yearns  to 
forgive  the  sinful.  And  the  Atone- 
ment is  the  way  whereby,  in  the 
Unity  of  the  Godhead,  eternal  love 
satisfied  the  moral  necessity  of 
eternal  righteousness.  "  God  send- 
ing His  own  Son,  in  the  likeness  of 
sinful  flesh,  and  as  an  offering  for 
sin,  condemned  sin  in  the  flesh ; "  i.  e., 
in  the  Incarnate  Christ.  The  Sacri- 
fice of  the  Incarnate  Christ  is  an  act 
of  the  Godhead,  done  in  the  Person 
of  the  Divine  Son,  on  behalf  of  the 
human  race,  as  a  solemn  condemna- 
tion of  sin  through  death.  On  the 
Cross  of  Christ,  in  the  Body  and  Soul 
of  the  Representative  Man,  the  sin 
of  man  is  judged  and  condemned 
unto  death,  as  a  thing  intolerable  in 
the  universe  of  God ;  and  thus  eter- 
nal love  itself  meets  the  demand  of 
eternal  righteousness,  and  through 
9' 


Sorrow  of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice 

a  Divine  Sacrifice,  by  enduring  the 
condemnation  of  sin,  makes  possible 
its  forgiveness.  Every  obstacle  in 
the  path  of  forgiveness  is  thus  re- 
moved, save  one,  —  the  will  of  the 
individual.  The  race,  as  a  race,  is 
redeemed,  in  that  the  sins  of  the 
whole  world  are  condemned  in  the 
Sacrifice  of  Christ,  as  the  Represen- 
tative of  the  race  ;  but  the  individual, 
as  an  individual,  the  man,  the  woman, 
the  child,  is  saved  only  when  the 
personal  will  consents  to  the  right- 
eousness of  sin's  condemnation  as 
accomplished  in  Christ's  Sacrifice ; 
when  the  person  identifies  himself  or 
herself,  by  faith,  with  the  humiliated, 
suffering,  crucified  Saviour ;  dying 
with  Christ,  as  it  were,  unto  sin,  as 
unto  an  accursed  and  intolerable 
condition,  and  rising  with  Christ,  as 
it  were,  unto  newness  of  life,  to  walk 
not  after  the  flesh,  but  after  the 
Spirit.  This  recapitulation  of  the 
argument  is  found  to  have  been 
92 


Sorrow  of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice 

advantageous  when  we  approach  our 
present  theme,  which  is  the  Sorrow 
of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice.  It  is 
impossible  to  affirm  the  nature  of 
His  Sorrow  without  affirming  the 
nature  of  His  Sacrifice,  and  the 
nature  of  His  Sacrifice  depends  on 
the  constitution  of  His  Person. 
What  He  suffered  depends  on  what 
He  did,  and  what  He  did  depends 
on  what  He  is. 

Sorrow  is  one  of  the  most  ele- 
mentary conditions  of  organic  life  in 
a  world  disordered  by  sin.  Sin's 
disorder  extends  far  beyond  the  con- 
fines of  human  life,  as  the  rings  on 
the  lake  spread  in  circles  immensely 
greater  than  the  stone  dropped  there- 
in. Intelligence,  human  or  pre- 
human, sins ;  creation  suffers.  "  The 
whole  creation  groaneth  and  tra- 
vaileth  in  pain."  The  Bible  reveals 
sin  as  older  and  wider  than  human- 
ity. The  tragedy  of  Satan's  fall  is 
older  than  that  of  the  race  which 
93 


Sorrow  of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice 

fell  by  a  Satanic  temptation.  As 
the  fossil  secrets  of  the  rocks  are 
discovered,  we  find  pain  and  sorrow 
were  here,  in  the  struggles  and  woes 
of  the  lower  animals,  ere  there  were 
human  hearts  to  break  or  human 
eyes  to  weep. 

Upon  studying  the  great  fact  of 
sorrow,  we  find  it  to  contain  grada- 
tions and  variations.  Sorrows  are 
differentiated  not  only  in  degree 
but  in  kind.  Sorrows  vary  in  kind 
where  the  beings  who  experience 
them  vary  in  nature.  The  sorrow 
of  a  bird  whose  nest  has  been  robbed, 
or  of  a  beast  whose  young  are  slain 
before  her  eyes,  are  types  of  sorrow 
conditioned  on  the  nature  of  the 
beast  and  the  bird.  The  sorrow  of 
a  mother  at  the  death-bed  of  her 
child  includes,  it  may  be,  the  instinc- 
tive grief  of  all  living  creatures  in 
the  destruction  of  their  offspring,  — 
but  who  will  describe  the  sorrow  of 
a  bereaved  human  mother  as  differ- 
94 


Sorrow  of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice 

ing  only  in  degree  from  that  of  the 
animal  whose  young  is  slain  ?  It  is 
a  difference  in  kind,  conditioned  on 
the  superior  nature  of  the  human 
being,  who,  with  a  heart  capable  of 
nobler  affection,  a  mind  gifted  with 
rational  powers,  a  spirit  competent 
to  love  or  to  hate  God,  transforms 
sorrow  into  something  unknowable 
by  an  inferior  order  of  being.  As 
for  the  gradations  of  sorrow  between 
beings  possessing  the  same  nature, 
such  as,  for  example,  human  nature, 
it  seems  reasonable  to  look  upon 
such  gradations  as  differences  in 
degree,  rather  than  in  kind.  Fre- 
quently contrasts  are  drawn  between 
the  sorrows  of  the  ignorant  and 
unrefined  and  the  sorrows  of  those 
whose  natures  have  been  highly 
trained,  and  the  claim  is  made  that 
culture  removes,  by  a  process  of 
elevation,  one  part  of  the  human 
race  so  far  from  the  other  parts  of 
the  human  race,  that  the  sorrows 
95 


Sorrow  of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice 

of  cultivated  natures  differ  in  kind, 
as  well  as  in  degree,  from  those 
of  the  ignorant  and  uncultivated 
classes.  This  claim  is  a  pleasing 
one  from  the  point  of  view  of  edu- 
cated humanity.  It  seems  to  reserve 
for  refined  natures  a  certain  exclusive- 
ness  in  grief  as  well  as  in  pleasure. 
But  as  one  grows  to  know  humanity 
better,  one  questions  the  logic  of 
this  claim.  It  is  true  that  conven- 
tional advantages  and  superior  train- 
ing tend  to  increase  the  capacity 
for  experiencing  certain  forms  of 
pleasure  and  of  pain,  as  well  as  for 
manifesting  certain  types  of  joy 
and  of  sorrow ;  but  he  who  in  his 
study  of  humanity  goes  beneath  these 
external  differences,  may  expect  to 
find  the  fundamental  phenomena  of 
sorrow  the  same  in  all  who  share 
the  common  nature. 

Proceeding    along     this    line    of 
reasoning,  we  come  at  length  to  the 
Sorrow  of    Christ  in   His   Sacrifice, 
96 


Sorrow  of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice 

and  to  a  thoughtful  and  inquiring 
mind,  inclined  to  seek  by  investiga- 
tion a  basis  for  its  faith  rather  than 
to  accept  without  questioning  the 
ancestral  positions  of  historic  belief, 
the  very  phrase,  "the  Sorrow  of 
Christ"  is  a  challenge  to  the  reason. 
Why  is  it  a  challenge  to  the  reason  ? 
Because  it  seems  to  make  the  Sorrow 
of  Christ  unique.  Because,  in  a 
world  filled  with  sorrow,  where  it 
is  impossible  to  escape  the  incessant 
sights  and  sounds  of  grief,  save  by 
fleeing  to  the  desert  and  leading  a 
hermit's  life ;  in  a  world  where  the 
tragic  element  is  incessantly  present, 
where  forever  some  Rachel  is  weep- 
ing for  her  children,  some  human 
body  is  quivering  in  mortal  anguish, 
some  home  is  being  plunged  in  new- 
made  woe,  some  hopes  are  being 
grimly  wrecked ;  in  a  world  where 
some  lives  are  always  rising  into 
awful  prominence  by  reason  of  their 
extraordinary  sorrow,  the  Sorrow  of 
7  97 


Sorrow  of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice 

Jesus  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice  stands 
from  age  to  age  supreme  and  un- 
approached  by  any  other  grief  of 
earth.  The  woes  of  more  than  five 
and  twenty  centuries  have  come  and 
gone  since  he  who  was  called  the 
"  Evangelical  Prophet "  composed 
that  simple  phrase,  "  a  Man  of  Sor- 
rows "  as  a  portrait  of  Christ ;  and 
to-day,  though  millions  of  men  have 
sorrowed  since,  there  is  in  the 
thought  of  the  world  One,  and  only 
One,  "  Man  of  Sorrows."  Millions 
of  men  have  approached  those  great 
life-sorrows  which  stand  like  dark 
Gethsemanes  in  the  path  of  human 
feet,  yet  to  One,  and  to  One  only, 
do  we  feel  the  right,  or  even  the  in- 
clination, to  apply  the  words  of  that 
majestic  narrative :  "  Then  cometh 
He  unto  Gethsemane,  and  began  to 
be  sorrowful  and  sore  troubled ; 
Then  saith  He  unto  them,  My  soul 
is  exceeding  sorrowful,  even  unto 
death."  This  is  a  challenge  to 
98 


Sorrow  of  Christ  in   His  Sacrifice 

the  reason  because  it  differentiates 
between  the  Sorrow  of  Christ  and 
the  sorrow  of  other  beings  in  a 
manner  which  leaves  little  room  for 
any  other  conclusion  than  that  the 
Sorrow  of  Christ  is  believed  to  be 
different  in  kind  from  the  sorrows  of 
all  other  beings.  It  is  not  here  for- 
gotten that  another  conclusion  has 
been  reached  by  many  gifted  and 
refined  minds  touching  the  Sorrow 
of  Christ.  Full  value  should  be 
given  and  due  respect  should  be 
paid  to  the  opinion  of  those,  who, 
believing  Christ  to  be  the  Son  of 
God  only  in  the  sense  of  being  the 
most  Godlike  of  men,  describe  His 
Sacrifice  as  an  heroic  martyrdom 
for  righteousness'  sake,  and  His 
Sorrow  as  the  grief  of  a  beautiful 
soul,  conquering  its  agony  by 
patience  and  fortitude ;  and  greater 
only  in  degree  than  the  sorrows  of 
others,  because  springing  from  a 
nature  more  pure  and  more  heroic 
99 


Sorrow  of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice 

than  that  of  other  men.  One  is 
impressed  with  the  intellectual  and 
moral  beauty  of  many  who  have 
defended  this  Humanitarian  View  of 
the  Person  of  Christ,  but  reason 
seems  to  be  challenged  by  the  facts 
of  Christian  history  and  by  the  de- 
clarations of  Christian  Scriptures  to 
furnish  some  foundation  broader 
and  deeper  than  that  of  the  senti- 
ment of  admiration  to  account  for  the 
supreme  position  which  through  eigh- 
teen centuries  of  theological  changes 
has  been  steadily  assigned  to  the 
Sorrow  of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice. 
It  was  frankly  stated  at  the  outset 
of  this  study  in  Evangelical  belief 
that  the  Authenticity  of  Scripture, 
the  Inspiration  of  Scripture,  and  the 
Godhead  of  Christ  are  assumed. 
Proceeding  on  the  basis  of  these 
assumptions  (and  they  are  here 
stated  as  assumptions  only  because 
time  forbids  a  statement  of  the 
grounds  on  which  they  rest),  it 

IOO 


Sorrow  of  Christ  in   His  Sacrifice 

must  appear  that  the  nature  of 
Christ's  Sorrow  in  His  Sacrifice 
depends  on  the  Nature  of  Christ's 
Person  in  His  Incarnation.  What 
He  suffered  depends  on  what  He  is. 
If  His  Nature  is  simply  the  most 
perfect  example  of  our  own  nature, 
we  are  justified  in  looking  upon  His 
Sorrow  as  such  as  our  own  would  be 
under  similar  circumstances,  only 
greater  in  degree.  If  His  Nature, 
beside  including  a  perfect  humanity, 
was  also  the  Nature  of  the  Godhead, 
then  Christ's  Sorrow  in  His  Sacrifice, 
while  on  its  human  side  such  as  man 
may  to  some  extent  experience,  is 
also  on  its  Divine  side  such  as  God 
only  can  experience ;  such  as  differs, 
not  in  degree  alone,  but  in  kind, 
from  the  sorrow  of  man. 

Who,  then,  is  this  Man  of  Sor- 
rows ?  He  is  God,  clothed  in  hu- 
man nature.  Why  has  God  clothed 
Himself  in  human  nature  ?  That 
He  may  stand  visibly  before  men 

101 


Sorrow  of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice 

as  their  Representative,  and,  as  such, 
meet  by  death  that  moral  necessity 
of  God's  righteousness  which  re- 
quires the  condemnation  of  sin  ere 
it  can  be  forgiven.  Christ  is  not  a 
holy  human  being  acting  as  God's 
Representative.  Christ  is  God  act- 
ing as  man's  Representative,  by 
clothing  Himself  in  man's  nature, 
and  suffering  therein  for  man's  sake. 
Christ  is  the  Second  Member  of  the 
Godhead,  and  the  Unity  of  the  God- 
head is  not  interrupted  by  His 
Incarnation.  He  is  continuously 
and  forever,  God  the  Son,  One  in 
Substance,  One  in  Purpose,  with 
God  the  Father.  The  attitude  of 
the  Godhead  toward  the  human 
race  is  the  attitude  of  love.  In  the 
Father  that  attitude  finds  expres- 
sion when  the  Father  sends  the  Son 
to  be  the  Saviour  of  the  world.  In 
the  Son,  that  attitude  finds  expres- 
sion when  the  Son  enters  the  world 
clothed  in  human  nature,  as  man's 

102 


Sorrow  of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice 

Representative,  and  saying  by  His 
very  presence  on  earth  :  "  Lo,  I  come 
to  do  the  Father's  will."  The  Per- 
son of  Christ  is,  then,  something 
utterly  and  absolutely  unique. 
Never  before  was  there,  never 
afterwards  could  there  be,  another 
Christ.  He  stands  alone,  neces- 
sarily unique.  "  I  am  Alpha  and 
Omega,  the  Beginning  and  the 
Ending,  the  First  and  the  Last." 
In  Him  is  our  nature  truly  and  ver- 
itably present;  the  power  to  think 
our  thoughts,  to  know  our  experi- 
ences, to  bear  our  griefs,  to  carry 
our  sorrows.  In  Him  is  also  the 
Nature  of  the  Godhead  truly  and 
veritably  present:  the  eternal  love 
of  the  Godhead  for  the  human  race, 
purposing  the  glory  of  the  race, 
sorrowing  over  its  downfall ;  the 
eternal  righteousness  of  the  God- 
head, moved,  by  the  moral  neces- 
sity of  the  Being  of  God,  with 
everlasting  wrath  and  antagonism 
103 


Sorrow  of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice 

against  sin,  as  an  intolerable  con- 
dition in  the  universe.  Assuming 
the  Authenticity  and  Inspiration  of 
the  Holy  Scripture,  and  speaking 
simply  as  a  reporter  of  their  con- 
tents, one  must  fearlessly  say  that 
the  Scriptures  require  us  to  regard 
the  Person  of  Christ  as  that  of  God 
clothed  in  human  nature,  real  hu- 
manity coexisting  with  veritable  and 
unqualified  Godhead.  His  assump- 
tion of  humanity  is  not  accomplished 
by  His  resignation  of  Godhead. 
He  does  not  become  man  by  ceas- 
ing to  be  God,  but  in  the  uninter- 
rupted life  and  consciousness  of 
His  Godhead  He  assumes  once  and 
forever  the  nature  of  man ;  for  three 
and  thirty  years,  carrying  it  amidst 
conditions  of  humiliation  consum- 
mated in  death,  and  thence,  onward 
and  eternally,  carrying  it  in  the 
power  and  blessedness  of  Risen 
Glory.  Upon  the  basis  of  such  a 
doctrine  of  the  Person  of  Christ 
104 


Sorrow  of  Christ  in   His  Sacrifice 

it  is  easy  to  foresee  the  conclusions 
which  must  follow  concerning  the 
Sorrow  of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice. 
What  He  suffered  depends  on  what 
He  is.  Granting  that  the  Person 
of  Christ  is  the  Person  of  the  God- 
Man,  the  conclusions  are  irresistible 
touching  the  nature  of  His  sorrow. 
The  Sorrow  of  Christ  in  His  Sacri- 
fice is  the  sorrow  of  man  under  con- 
ditions of  supreme  humiliation. 
The  Sorrow  of  Christ  in  His  Sac- 
rifice is  the  Sorrow  of  God  making 
Atonement  for  sin.  Into  these  con- 
clusions we  must  look. 

The  Sorrow  of  Christ  in  His  Sacra- 
fice  is  the  sorrow  of  man  under 
conditions  of  supreme  humiliation. 
Human  hearts  in  all  ages  have  been 
drawn  to  the  Cross  by  the  power  of 
sympathy.  The  appeal  of  that  mar- 
vellous countenance  of  the  Man  of 
Sorrows,  marred  by  the  ravages  of 
grief,  has  always  been,  to  multitudes, 
irresistible.  Has  it  been  an  illusion 


Sorrow  of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice 

or  a  mistake  that  we  have  seemed  to 
see  in  the  Man  of  Sorrows  something 
we  could  understand,  something  that 
could  understand  us  ?  Has  it  been 
an  error  that  even  many  of  us  Pro- 
testants cannot  stand  unmoved  be- 
fore the  crucifix,  nor  doubt  that  in 
some  manner  that  emblem  of  the 
grief  of  the  Sacrifice  takes  hold  upon 
our  hearts?  fls  it  a  dream,  which  a 
better  knowledge  of  Him  might  dis- 
solve, that  when  we  have  suffered  in 
our  temptations,  tossed  in  our  fever- 
ish sickness,  trembled  in  the  loneli- 
ness of  our  responsibilities,  wept  in 
secret  over  our  public  humiliations, 
or  sat  speechless  and  stonelike  to 
watch  the  ashen  pallor  of  death 
change  the  face  of  our  dearly  loved 
one,  we  have  been  calmed,  if  not 
composed,  by  the  thought  of  the 
Sorrow  of  Christ  ?  Was  there  noth- 
ing real  in  the  instinct  which  bade 
us  bring  Him  into  places  in  our  life, 
too  deep,  too  dark,  too  dreary  for 
1 06 


Sorrow  of  Christ  in   His  Sacrifice 

others  to  enter;  which  prompted  us  to 
believe  that  His  experience  of  sorrow 
had  preceded  and  could  comprehend 
our  own  ?  It  was  not  a  dream. )  It 
was  not  an  error.  The  Sorrow  of 
Christ  was  the  sorrow  of  man,  and 
as  such,  it  is  supreme  among  the 
sorrows  of  men  and  precious  to  all 
men  of  sorrows.  Supreme  and 
precious  because  the  perfection  of 
His  Humanity  enabled  Him  without 
let  or  hindrance  to  explore,  through 
experience,  the  possibilities  of  sorrow. 
We  have  only  to  remember  the  sensi- 
tiveness, the  purity,  the  affectionate- 
ness,  the  aspiration  of  the  Manhood 
of  Jesus  to  perceive  the  acuteness 
and  the  manifoldness  of  the  Sorrow 
of  His  whole  life.  And  in  the  un- 
speakable sadness  of  His  Sacrifice 
the  sorrows  extended  over  a  lifetime 
seem  to  be  compressed  and  inten- 
sified ;  —  the  sorrow  of  temptation 
which,  because  of  His  undefiled  Soul, 
was  more  awful  to  Him  than  it  could 
107 


Sorrow  of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice 

be  to  a  sinner;  the  sorrow  of  intel- 
lectual and  spiritual  loneliness  as  His 
Soul  swelled  with  thoughts  and  feel- 
ings not  to  be  uttered  because  even 
the  best  and  brightest  of  His  friends 
could  not  bear  them  then  ;  the  sorrow 
of  realizing  about  Him  an  atmo- 
sphere of  hatred  and  distrust,  when 
His  own  heart  was  charged  with  love 
and  faithfulness ;  the  sorrow  of  being 
despised  and  rejected  of  men,  loaded 
with  ignominy,  repulsed  with  bitter- 
ness ;  the  sorrow  of  an  enforced  con- 
tact with  sin,  the  thing  that  He  hated 
and  loathed,  yet  the  thing  that  was 
pressed  on  His  attention  at  every 
turn ;  the  sorrow  of  confronting  in 
all  the  beauty  of  His  young  Man- 
hood a  death  most  horribly  devised 
by  the  very  genius  of  cruelty;  the 
sorrow  of  beholding  His  friends  be- 
tray Him,  deny  Him,  and  desert 
Him,  leaving  Him  to  face  that 
bloody  death,  scorned  by  the  Jew, 
scourged  by  the  Gentile.  Yes ! 
1 08 


Sorrow  of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice 

The  Sorrow  of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice 
was  the  sorrow  of  man ;  it  was  the 
sorrow,  greater  in  degree  than  ours, 
yet  the  same  in  kind,  the  sorrow  of 
our  Brother,  of  our  Friend,  Who, 
because  in  His  sensitive,  holy  Hu- 
manity He  has  explored  the  pos- 
sibilities of  earthly  sorrow,  can  come 
so  marvellously  into  the  sacred  places 
of  our  human  thought  and  be  to  us 
what  none  else  can  be. 

But  was  it  only  the  sorrow  of 
man  ?  Was  it  not  this  and  also 
more  than  this  ?  Yes !  The  Sorrow 
of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice  was  the 
Sorrow  of  God  making  Atonement 
for  sin.  The  Sorrow  of  God?  Is 
such  a  thing  possible  as  the  Sorrow 
of  God  ?  Can  God  be  in  sorrow  ? 
To  those  whose  conception  of  God 
has  been  such  as  to  swallow  up  the 
idea  of  the  Fatherhood  in  that  of  the 
Sovereignty,  to  those  who  have  un- 
consciously lost  their  sense  of  the 
Unity  of  the  Godhead  by  contrasting 
109 


Sorrow  of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice 

God  with  Christ,  God  as  hating  man 
and  wishing  to  destroy  him,  Christ 
as  loving  man  and  dying  to  save 
him,  it  is  difficult  to  realize  the 
Sorrow  of  God.  And  we  do  not 
realize  it  until  we  firmly  grasp  that 
fundamental  idea,  the  Unity  of  the 
Godhead ;  that  the  love,  the  tender- 
ness, and  the  sorrow  we  find  in  God 
the  Son,  must  also  be  in  God  the 
Father,  and  that  because  Christ  is  of 
the  Nature  of  the  Godhead,  the 
Sorrow  of  Christ  is  the  Sorrow  of 
God,  making  Atonement  for  sin. 
But  are  there  any  words  competent 
to  set  forth  in  any  degree  a  thought 
so  vast  as  the  thought  of  the  Sorrow 
of  God  in  the  Atonement?  There 
would  not  be  were  it  not  for  the  ful- 
ness with  which  the  Scriptures  reveal 
the  purpose  of  God  toward  man  and 
the  attitude  of  God  toward  sin.  But 
through  the  revelation  of  those  Scrip- 
tures we  can,  even  to  some  small  ex- 
tent, conceive  of  the  Sorrow  of  God. 
no 


Sorrow  of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice 

We  behold  in  it  the  Sorrow  of  dis- 
tress for  the  Fall  of  man ;  the  Sorrow 
of  wrath  for  the  wilfulness  of  man ; 
the  Sorrow  of  humiliation  in  bearing 
the  curse  of  sin. 

The  Sorrow  of  God  in  the  Divine 
Sacrifice  was  the  Sorrow  of  distress 
for  the  Fall  of  man.  When,  in  one 
of  our  human  homes,  a  beloved  child 
goes  wrong,  and,  choosing  darkness 
rather  than  light,  breaks  away  from 
parental  love,  what  distress  comes  to 
a  father's,  to  a  mother's  heart!  And 
if  we  can  suffer  so  in  the  failure  of 
our  dear  ones,  what  must  God  suffer 
in  the  falling  of  the  race  ?  The  mea- 
sure of  that  grief  must  be  the  love 
that  inspired  God's  glorious  purpose 
for  man.  When  man  set  himself 
against  that  purpose  he  pierced  the 
heart  of  God.  And  that  Sorrow  of 
God  in  the  falling  of  the  race  was  the 
sorrow  of  an  infinite  knowledge  which 
could  foresee  the  interminable  evolu- 
tion of  sin's  results  in  the  human 
in 


Sorrow  of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice 

race,  the  foul  and  loathsome  perver- 
sion of  the  laws  of  our  being,  the 
devilish  riot  of  unchastened  desires, 
the  doom  of  heredity,  blighting  un- 
born generations.  Because  in  Christ 
dwelt  the  fulness  of  the  Godhead 
bodily,  we  know  that  He  saw  all  this, 
felt  all  this,  knew  all  this,  as  He  lived 
among  the  fallen  race,  and  then  went 
forth  to  die  at  the  hands  of  the  fallen 
race,  bearing  upon  His  Divine  Self- 
consciousness  a  full  knowledge  of  the 
misery  sin  had  caused  and  yet  would 
cause. 

The  Sorrow  of  God  in  the  Divine 
Sacrifice  was  the  Sorrow  of  wrath  for 
the  wilfulness  of  man.  The  Fall  was 
the  calamity  of  the  beloved  race ;  but 
the  Fall  was  also  the  sin  of  the  be- 
loved race,  the  wilfulness  of  wills 
made  in  the  image  of  God's  will  and 
erecting  themselves  in  revolt  and 
defiance  against  the  will  of  God. 
By  a  moral  necessity  of  the  God- 
head, wrath  and  condemnation  are 

112 


Sorrow  of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice 

poured  upon  sin,  as  an  intolerable 
evil  in  the  universe.  They  which 
commit  such  things  are  worthy  of 
death.  The  wrath  of  God  is  re- 
vealed from  heaven  upon  all  ungod- 
liness of  men.  And  because  in  Christ 
dwelt  the  fulness  of  the  Godhead 
bodily,  His  attitude  and  feeling 
towards  sin  and  sinfulness  as  He 
went  to  His  Cross  were  the  atti- 
tude and  feeling  of  Godhead.  He 
recognized,  as  the  cause  of  His 
death,  sin,  the  one  thing  that  God 
hates,  and  against  which  His  wrath 
is  poured  out;  and  as  He  beheld 
Himself  surrounded  by  a  race  glory- 
ing in  sin,  pushing  their  sin  upon 
His  notice,  flaunting  their  wilfulness 
in  His  face,  to  what  marvellous 
proportions  rises  the  tragedy  of  the 
Atonement,  when  we  see  the  wrath 
of  the  Godhead  and  the  meekness 
of  the  Lamb  blending  in  Christ's 
Soul. 

The  Sorrow  of  God  in  the  Divine 

8  113 


Sorrow  of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice 

Sacrifice  was  the  Sorrow  of  humili- 
ation in  bearing  the  curse  of  sin. 
He  humbled  Himself  and  became 
obedient  unto  death,  even  the  death 
of  the  Cross.  Oh !  the  awfulness 
of  that  humiliation !  God  the 
Righteous  bowing  down  under  sin, 
the  thing  which  He  hated,  and 
receiving  upon  Himself,  as  if 
He  were  a  sinner,  the  curse  and 
condemnation  of  sin.  No  wonder 
that  even  God  Himself  faltered  be- 
fore that  intolerable  humiliation. 
No  wonder  that  Christ,  in  Whom 
the  Godhead  dwelt,  when  He  real- 
ized that  the  hour  had  come  when 
that  humiliation  under  sin  must  be 
publicly  disclosed  in  the  horrors 
of  Calvary,  that  He  must  drink  that 
deadly  cup  of  wrath  in  the  sight 
of  men,  sank  in  the  darkness  of 
the  Garden,  a  sweat  of  blood  break- 
ing from  Him,  and  prayed :  "  O  my 
Father,  if  it  be  possible,  let  this  cup 
pass  from  Me ! "  No  wonder,  when 
114 


Sorrow  of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice 

the  shame  of  that  humiliation  was 
actively  experienced  in  the  naked- 
ness of  the  Cross,  it  seemed  to  Him 
that  Godhead  Itself  was  blotted  out 
as  with  a  cloud,  and  he  cried :  "  My 
God,  my  God,  why  hast  Thou  for- 
saken Me!" 

What  shall  our  relation  be  to  the 
Sorrow  of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice? 
Can  there  be  one  who,  having  fol- 
lowed this  thought,  remains  in  en- 
tire indifference  ?  Can  there  be 
one  content  to  regard  this  theme 
in  a  spirit  of  impassive  specula- 
tion,—  content  to  gaze  at  the  Sorrow 
of  that  Sacrifice  with  no  respon- 
sive emotion,  with  naught  but  intel- 
lectual curiosity  ?  Can  there  be 
one  content  to  give  to  the  Sor- 
rowing Saviour  only  sentimental 
pity,  one  who  is  not  lifted  by  the 
conception  of  the  Sorrow  of  God 
to  a  plane  of  thought  where  pity 
dies  in  awe  ? 

Well    may   one    pray    for   power 


Sorrow  of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice 

to  understand  what  Christ  meant 
when  He  said :  "  Ye  shall  drink  of 
my  cup ; "  what  an  Apostle  sought 
when  he  cried,  "  That  I  may  know 
Him  and  the  fellowship  of  His  suf- 
ferings." How  can  man  have  a 
fellowship  with  sufferings  that  are 
the  Sufferings  of  God  ?  Only  by 
self-abasement  in  the  presence  of 
those  Sufferings,  being  crucified 
with  Christ  by  the  sacrifice  of  the 
will,  condemning  sin  in  oneself,  and 
by  faith  uniting  oneself  to  Him  in 
His  Death,  that  one  may  be 
raised  with  Him  in  His  Resurrec- 
tion, to  walk  with  Him  in  newness 
of  life. 


116 


V 


THE  JOY  OF  CHRIST  IN   HIS 
SACRIFICE 


117 


Who,  for  the  joy  that  was  set  before  Him, 
endured  the  cross,  despising  the  shame. 

EPISTLE  TO  THE  HEBREWS. 

And  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up  from  the  earth,  will  draw 
all  men  unto  Me.  This  He  said,  signifying  what 
death  He  should  die." 

GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

Be  of  good  cheer ;  I  have  overcome  the  world. 
GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

When  He  cometh  into  the  world  He  saith, 
sacrifice  and  offering  Thou  wouldest  not,  but  a 
Body  didst  Thou  prepare  for  me.  Then  said  I, 
Lo,  I  am  come  (in  the  roll  of  the  book  it  is 
written  of  me)  to  do  Thy  Will,  O  God. 

EPISTLE  TO  THE  HEBREWS. 


118 


Chapter   V 
The  Joy  of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice 

WE  now  approach  a  theme  which, 
in  the  nature  of  the  case,  stands  in 
close  relation  to  that  of  the  pre- 
ceding chapter.  Whatever  observa- 
tions we  may  be  permitted  to  make 
touching  the  Joy  of  Christ  in  His 
Sacrifice,  must  necessarily  rest 
upon  the  same  belief  concerning 
the  Nature  of  His  Person  as  that 
which  supported  us  in  our  study  of 
the  Sorrow  of  Christ  in  His  Sacri- 
fice. For  the  Sorrow  of  Christ  and 
the  Joy  of  Christ  are  two  phases  of 
personality  revealed  in  one  and  the 
same  Person.  He  Who  knew  the 
sorrow  is  He  Who  knew  the  joy. 
And  as  the  elements  of  His  Sorrow 
were  conditioned  on  the  qualities  of 
119 


The  Joy  of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice 

His  Person,  as  what  He  suffered 
depends  on  what  He  is ;  so  the 
elements  of  His  Joy  are  conditioned 
equally  on  the  qualities  of  His  Per- 
son, and  the  nature  of  His  Joy 
depends  on  what  He  is.  We  have 
already  affirmed  our  belief  concern- 
ing the  constitution  of  the  Person  of 
Jesus  Christ,  the  Mediator.  We 
have  asked  and  have  answered  the 
question,  "  Who,  then,  is  the  Man  of 
Sorrows  ?  "  We  have  replied  :  "  He 
is  God,  clothed  in  human  nature." 
We  have  said  (and  there  is  an 
obvious  propriety  in  refreshing  our 
memories  as  to  the  exact  position 
taken) :  "  The  Person  of  Christ  is 
absolutely  and  necessarily  unique. 
Never  before  was  there,  never  after- 
ward could  there  be,  another  Christ. 
He  is  Alpha  and  Omega,  the  Begin- 
ning and  the  Ending,  the  First  and 
the  Last.  In  Him  is  our  nature 
truly  and  veritably  present,  —  the 
power  to  think  our  thoughts,  to 

120 


The  Joy  of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice 

know  our  experiences,  to  bear  our 
griefs,  to  carry  our  sorrows.  In 
Him  is  also  the  Nature  of  Godhead 
truly  and  veritably  present,  the 
eternal  love  of  the  Godhead  for 
the  human  race,  purposing  the  glory 
of  the  human  race,  sorrowing  over 
its  downfall ;  the  eternal  righteous- 
ness of  the  Godhead,  moved,  by  the 
moral  necessity  of  the  Being  of  God, 
with  everlasting  wrath  and  antag- 
onism against  sin,  as  an  intolerable 
condition  in  the  universe.  The 
Person  of  Christ  (such  appears  to  be 
the  actual  teaching  of  the  Scripture) 
is  real  Humanity  co-existing  with 
veritable  and  unqualified  Godhead  ; 
His  assumption  of  the  humanity  is 
not  accomplished  by  His  resignation 
of  the  Godhead.  He  does  not  be- 
come man  by  ceasing  temporarily 
to  be  God  ;  but  in  the  uninterrupted 
life  of  His  Godhead,  He  assumed 
once  and  forever  the  nature  of  man, 
carrying  it  for  three  and  thirty  years 

121 


The  Joy  of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice 

amidst  conditions  of  humiliation 
consummated  in  death,  and  thence, 
onward  and  eternally,  carrying  it  in 
the  power  and  blessedness  of  Risen 
Glory."  (See  Chapter  IV.) 

One  can  well  understand  how  it 
may  be  difficult  for  some  to  join  in 
this  affirmation  of  belief  who  never- 
theless reverence  and  adore  the 
Person  of  Christ  as  Divine.  The 
difficulty  encountered  by  these  minds 
is  that  of  conceiving  how  Christ 
could  be  truly  man  while  at  the 
same  moment  truly  self-conscious  of 
His  Eternal  Godhead.  It  seems 
necessary  to  those  feeling  this  diffi- 
culty to  regard  Him  as  having  laid 
aside  His  Godhead  when,  to  quote 
the  noble  language  of  the  Philippian 
Epistle,  "  He,  being  in  the  form  of 
God,  counted  it  not  a  prize  to  be  on 
an  equality  with  God,  but  emptied 
Himself,  taking  the  form  of  a  servant, 
being  made  in  the  likeness  of  men." 
"  What,"  it  is  asked,  "  can  that  mean, 

122 


The  Joy  of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice 

if  not  that  He  emptied  Himself  of 
His  Godhead  and  became,  for  the 
time  being,  merely  a  man  ?  "  "  How," 
it  is  asked,  "  can  we  hold  the  blessed 
truth  of  a  Christ  made  like  unto  His 
earthly  brethren,  unless  we  also  hold 
that  whilst  He  tarried  on  the  earth 
His  humiliation  was  in  the  fact  that 
He  had  laid  off  His  Godhead? " 

It  can  hardly  be  necessary  to  point 
out  that  this  view  of  the  Person  of 
Christ  is  far  removed  from  that 
humanitarian  view  of  His  Person 
which  feels  that  it  has  made  its  ut- 
most concession  when  it  grants  Him 
to  have  been  only  the  loveliest  and 
the  most  godlike  of  the  children  of 
men.  This  humanitarian  view  is  the 
exaltation  of  a  .man  among  his 
fellow-men  by  his  supremacy  in 
human  virtues ;  the  other  view  is 
the  humiliation  of  a  God  down  to 
the  rank  of  men,  by  His  voluntary 
abdication  of  Godhead.  The  two 
opinions  are  as  far  from  one  another 
123 


The  Joy  of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice 

as  is  the  east  from  the  west.  But. 
as  one  examines  without  preconcep- 
tions or  prejudices  the  scriptures 
which  describe  the  Person  of  Christ, 
one  sees  reasons,  lifting  themselves 
out  of  the  very  Word,  and  expanding 
above  one  like  the  outstretched 
wings  of  God,  why  the  humiliation 
of  Jesus  Christ  could  not  have  con- 
sisted in  the  laying  off  of  His  con- 
scious Godhead  ;  why,  on  the 
contrary,  it  must  have  consisted  in 
retaining  the  self-conscious  God- 
head and  affiliating  it,  in  infinite 
self-abasement,  with  the  nature  of 
men.  If  Jesus  Christ  is,  in  fact, 
a  Member  of  the  Godhead,  can  He  at 
any  time  cease,  for  a  season,  from 
that  existence  ?  Can  the  Godhead 
be,  in  any  sense,  or  in  any  part  of 
its  Selfhood,  intermittent  ?  If  Jesus 
Christ  is  the  Mediator  between  God 
and  man,  could  He  be  that  without 
uniting  in  Himself  the  two  natures 
between  which  He  is  to  mediate? 
124 


The  Joy  of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice 

Could  He  reconcile  man  to  God, 
could  He  reveal  God  to  man,  by 
ceasing  to  be  God  ?  But  still 
greater  and  more  conclusive  reasons 
present  themselves.  If  Christ's 
humiliation  consisted  in  laying  off 
His  Godhead,  in  His  emptying  Him- 
self of  Godhead,  then  it  follows  that 
through  the  whole  process  of  His 
mediatorial  work  on  earth,  and  in 
the  very  consummation  of  that  work, 
in  His  Sacrifice,  He  was  deprived  of 
all  mediatorial  and  Divine  self-con- 
sciousness of  the  significance  and 
value  of  His  own  acts.  He  knew 
not  what  He  did,  save  as  a  man 
might  know  the  impulse  of  self- 
sacrifice.  As  He  hung  in  that  wild 
storm,  when  the  waves  of  human 
hatred  and  rejection  broke  against 
His  Cross,  did  His  dormant  God- 
head slumber  on,  unconscious  that 
a  world  was  in  the  very  act  and 
article  of  its  Redemption  ?  And, 
greater  than  all  other  thoughts,  if 
125 


The  Joy  of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice 

Christ's  humiliation  was  the  laying 
off  of  Godhead,  if  His  sorrow  in 
death  is  but  the  dying  sorrow  of  a 
human  self-consciousness,  then  what 
is  there  in  His  Sacrifice  to  constitute 
it  an  Atonement  for  the  world? 
Wherein,  then,  does  His  death  differ 
from  the  death  of  other  heroes? 
Nay !  the  humiliation  of  Christ  is 
not  the  laying  off  of  Godhead,  but 
the  retaining  of  Godhead  in  humil- 
iating association  with  an  inferior 
nature.  The  Sorrow  of  Christ  is  not 
in  the  temporary  suspension  of  His 
Divine  Self-consciousness,  but  in 
the  preservation  of  that  Divine  Self- 
consciousness  in  the  presence  of 
repugnant  and  revolting  experiences. 
The  sorrow  of  human  suffering  on 
the  surgeon's  table  is  suspended 
when  self-consciousness  is  put  to 
sleep  by  the  anaesthetic,  but  the 
Sorrow  of  the  Divine  Sacrifice  is  not 
suspended  in  the  Person  of  the  Son 
of  God  by  the  anaesthetic  of  renun- 
126 


The  Joy  of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice 

ciation  in  respect  of  His  self-con- 
scious Godhead.  His  humiliation 
and  His  Sorrow  are  in  this :  all  that 
He  is  He  knows  Himself  to  be.  And 
through  the  humiliation  of  this  un- 
alleviated  self-knowledge  in  the  Per- 
son of  Christ,  consciously  active  in  the 
presence  of  sin,  is  the  Atonement; 
for  the  Atonement  is  an  Atonement 
because  it  is  such  an  actual  and 
suffering  condemnation  of  sin  on 
the  part  of  God  Himself  as  shall 
satisfy  that  moral  necessity  in  the 
Nature  of  God  which  demands  sin's 
condemnation  ere  sin's  forgiveness 
is  possible. 

While  we  have  thus  been  dwelling 
on  the  Sorrow  of  Christ  in  His 
Sacrifice,  we  have  come,  not  merely 
to  the  threshold,  but  into  the  glorious 
heart  of  our  present  theme,  —  the 
Joy  of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice.  For 
whatsoever  in  the  constitution  of 
His  Person  caused  His  Sorrow  to  be 
all  that  it  was,  is  the  same  as 
127 


The  Joy  of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice 

that  which  caused  His  Joy  to  be  all 
that  it  was,  when  He  set  His  face 
steadfastly  to  go  to  Jerusalem,  royal 
and  exultant  in  spirit,  as  a  King 
going  to  His  coronation.  We  have 
seen  that  the  Sorrow  of  Christ  in 
His  Sacrifice  was  the  sorrow  of  man 
under  conditions  of  supreme  humilia- 
tion ;  and  that  it  was  also  the  sor- 
row of  God  making  Atonement  for 
sin.  So  may  we  also  affirm :  the  Joy 
of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice  was  the 
joy  of  man  under  conditions  of 
heroic  unselfishness;  it  was  also  the 
Joy  of  God  in  the  Redemption  and 
the  Recovery  of  a  beloved  race. 

Perhaps  the  most  suggestive  ut- 
terance in  the  New  Testament  con- 
cerning the  Joy  of  the  Mediator  in 
His  Sacrifice  is  that  which  in  the 
Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  exhorts  us  to 
look  unto  Jesus  as  "  the  perfect 
example  of  that  faith  which  we  are 
to  imitate." l  Christ  is  there  de- 

1  Wescott,  Ep.  to  the  Hebrews,  p.  395. 
128 


The  Joy  of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice 

scribed  as  the  One  "  Who,  for  the 
Joy  that  was  set  before  Him,  endured 
the  Cross,  despising  the  shame." 
The  suggestions  awakened  in  the 
mind  when  it  perceives  the  force  of 
that  glorious  expression,  "the  Joy 
that  was  set  before  Him,"  are  exalt- 
ing and  gladdening.  Jesus  is  there 
represented  as  enduring  the  Cross 
with  noblest  dignity,  disregarding  the 
judgment  of  men  concerning  the 
shame  of  the  Cross,  because,  raised 
in  spirit  above  the  common  levels  of 
human  perception,  He  beheld,  set 
before  Him,  stretched  out  like  a 
sunny  landscape  before  His  eyes, 
a  vision  of  results  proceeding  from 
His  Passion,  which  filled  Him  with 
joy.  And  so  vast  and  substantial 
were  these  results  as  He  realized 
them  prospectively  from  His  Cross, 
He  was  enabled,  in  the  joy  of  them, 
to  endure  His  sufferings,  and  to 
triumph  even  in  His  humiliation. 
Who  can  think  of  the  Joy  of  Christ 
9  129 


The  Joy  of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice 

in  His  Sacrifice  without  desiring  to 
know  the  sources  and  the  nature  of 
that  Joy?  Where  such  a  desire 
exists,  it  may  to  some  extent  be 
satisfied.  Our  knowledge  of  human 
nature  on  its  nobler  side  permits  us 
to  understand  in  some  degree  the 
Joy  of  Christ  which  His  Humanity 
knew,  and  the  Scriptures  splendidly 
disclose  the  Joy  that  entered  His 
Self-consciousness  of  Godhead  even 
amidst  the  humiliation  and  sorrow 
of  the  Divine  Sacrifice. 

We  have  said  that  the  Joy  of 
Christ  in  His  Sacrifice  was  the 
joy  of  man  under  conditions  of  heroic 
unselfishness.  When  we  spoke  of 
His  Sorrow  as  a  Man,  a  sorrow  the 
more  exquisitely  keen  because  ex- 
perienced in  the  purest  and  finest 
of  natures,  a  sorrow  including  temp- 
tation ;  intellectual  and  spiritual 
loneliness;  the  hatred,  distrust,  and 
rejection  of  men ;  enforced  contact 
with  sin ;  the  approach  of  a  hor- 
130 


The  Joy  of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice 

rible  death,  accentuated  by  betrayal, 
denial,  and  desertion  at  the  hands 
of  His  friends,  —  we  perceived  how 
these  things,  by  being  a  part  of 
Our  Lord's  experience,  have  ac- 
counted for  that  instinct  in  ourselves 
which  bids  us  bring  Him  into  places 
in  our  life  too  deep,  too  dark,  too 
dreary  for  others  to  enter;  which 
prompts  us  to  believe  that  His  ex- 
perience of  sorrow  has  comprehended 
our  own.  The  Joy  which  was  set 
before  Him  in  His  Sacrifice  was 
in  part  this :  that  He  perceived  with 
the  delight  of  heroic  unselfishness 
how  His  sufferings  were  preparing 
Him  an  access  into  human  hearts, 
an  avenue  to  their  deepest  con- 
fidence. To  one  who  deeply  loves 
humanity,  whose  passion  is  the  pas- 
sion of  helpfulness,  there  are  mo- 
ments when  our  suffering,  whether 
of  mind  or  body,  seems  worth  all 
it  costs,  because  of  the  added  power 
that  comes  through  it  to  understand 


The  Joy  of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice 

those  who  suffer,  and  to  gain  their 
confidence.  Though  we  may  have 
known  hours  of  darkness,  hours 
of  humiliation,  hours  when  the 
burden  of  living  seemed  greater  than 
we  could  bear,  who  regrets  the 
sufferings  of  those  hours,  if,  by 
means  of  them,  one  learned  to  read 
the  secret  of  humanity's  sorrow  in 
a  way  that  fitted  one  to  meet  hu- 
manity's need  ?  This  was  the  Joy 
of  Christ  as  a  Man,  because  He  was 
a  lover  of  men.  In  every  tempta- 
tion that  stung  like  an  arrow  in  the 
living  flesh,  in  every  bitter  hour  of 
loneliness,  in  every  enforced  con- 
tact with  sin's  revolting  conditions, 
in  every  shock  to  friendship  and 
affront  to  love,  as  friend  after  friend 
denied  Him  or  turned  the  back  and 
fled,  in  the  darkling  hour  of  im- 
pending death,  in  the  last  ecstatic 
agony  of  pain,  He,  the  Lover  of 
men,  saw  but  one  bond  more,  bind- 
ing Him  closer  to  humanity;  but 
132 


The  Joy  of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice 

one  pang  more,  helping  Him  to 
understand  the  hardship  of  life ;  but 
one  claim  more  upon  the  affec- 
tion and  confidence  of  His  brother- 
men  ;  and  so,  for  the  joy  that  was 
set  before  Him,  spreading  far  and 
long  like  a  tender  and  sun-bathed 
landscape,  the  joy  of  winning  men 
through  sympathy  with  their  con- 
dition, He  endured  the  Cross,  de- 
spising the  shame. 

But  when  we  remember  that  in 
the  Person  of  Christ  dwelt  not  only 
the  heroic  unselfishness  of  a  large 
and  loving  soul,  but  also  the  august 
Self-consciousness  of  Godhead,  it 
is  manifest  that  the  Joy  of  Jesus 
in  His  Sacrifice  is  something  infi- 
nitely broader  and  deeper  than  we 
have  yet  considered ;  for  it  is  the 
Joy  of  God  in  the  Redemption  and 
the  Recovery  of  a  beloved  race.  To 
attempt  the  faintest  delineation  of 
that  Mediatorial  Joy,  that  Gladness 
of  God,  apart  from  the  Scriptures, 
133 


The  Joy  of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice 

were  indeed  perilous,  not  to  say 
presumptuous ;  for  who  hath  known 
the  mind  of  the  Lord  ?  But  when 
our  thought  is  founded  on  and 
limited  by  the  Scriptures  we  may, 
without  presumption,  rise  even  to 
the  plane  of  this  magnificent  con- 
ception,—  the  Joy  of  Jesus,  as,  self- 
conscious  of  His  own  Godhead, 
He  beheld  the  purpose  of  His  In- 
carnation attained  through  Sa- 
crifice. Broader  even  than  the 
measure  of  man's  mind  is  the 
breadth  of  this  thought.  Yet,  while 
we  cannot  comprehend  it  all,  we 
may  comprehend  some  of  it.  We 
may  look,  as  if  with  His  eyes,  upon 
some  part  of  that  great  landscape 
of  Joy  which  He  saw  from  the 
eminence  of  the  Cross.  He  re- 
joiced in  the  doing  of  the  Will  of 
the  Father.  He  rejoiced  in  the  re- 
construction of  human  society.  He 
rejoiced  in  the  communication  of  the 
spirit  of  victory  to  individual  lives. 


The  Joy  of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice 

He  rejoiced  in  the  doing  of  the 
Will  of  the  Father.  If  we  compre- 
hend the  meaning  of  that  state- 
ment, we  advance  immensely  toward 
a  right  understanding  of  the  Gospel 
of  the  Divine  Sacrifice.  And  to 
comprehend  it  is  well  within  our 
power  if  we  use  the  Scriptures. 
Men  have  talked  wildly  of  the 
Will  of  God.  But  let  us  /learn 
what  Jesus  tells  us  of  the  Will  of 
God ;  Jesus,  Who  taught  us  to  pray, 
saying:  "  Our  Father  Which  art  in 
heaven,  Thy  Will  be  done  on  earth 
as  it  is  in  heaven."  Jesus  came 
to  do,  to  further,  to  accomplish 
the  Will  of  God.  So  says  the 
Scripture  :  "  When  He  cometh  into 
the  world  He  saith :  Sacrifice  and 
offering  Thou  wouldest  not,  but  a 
Body  didst  Thou  prepare  for  Me. 
Then  said  I,  Lo !  I  am  come  (in 
the  roll  of  the  Book  it  is  written 
of  Me)  to  do  Thy  Will,  O  God." 
The  Will  of  the  Father  was  in 
135 


The  Joy  of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice 

harmony  with  the  Will  of  the 
Son.  "  I  and  My  Father  are  One," 
says  Christ;  "I  do  always  such 
things  as  please  Him."  There  is  no 
conflict,  no  distinction  of  motives, 
between  the  Father  and  Christ. 
The  will  of  the  Father  is  precious 
and  acceptable  to  the  Son.  "  My 
meat,"  says  Christ,  is  to  do  the 
Will  of  Him  that  sent  Me,  and  to 
finish  His  Work."  Christ  is  not,  in 
His  Love,  preventing,  by  sacrifice, 
a  malignant  Father  from  carrying 
out  His  wrathful  Will.  Christ,  in 
His  Love,  is  assisting  and  enabling, 
by  sacrifice,  a  loving  Father  to 
carry  out  His  blessed  Will.  What 
then  is  the  Will  of  God  of  which  the 
Son  says  :  "  Lo,  I  come  to  do  Thy 
Will  "  ?  Westcott  grandly  expressed 
it,  when  he  said  :  "  The  Will  of  God 
answers  to  the  fulfilment  of  man's 
true  destiny ;  and  this,  as  things 
actually  are,  in  spite  of  the  Fall. 
Christ,  as  Son  of  Man,  made  this 
136 


The  Joy  of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice 

Will  His  own,  and  accomplished  it."1 
The  Will  of  God  is  the  Eternal 
Purpose  and  choice  on  behalf  of  a 
beloved  race  that  it  shall  be  holy 
and  therefore  happy.  Sin  comes 
as  a  catastrophe,  a  self-ruin,  upon 
the  race.  But  sin,  while  it  calls 
forth  God's  wrath,  has  no  power 
to  change  God's  Will.  Yet  sin 
stands  in  the  way  of  that  Will,  for- 
bidding its  fulfilment.  But  because 
God  is  greater  than  sin,  He  will 
not  have  His  Purpose  blocked  by 
sin.  His  Will  shall  be  done;  the 
race  having  fallen  shall  be  redeemed 
and  recovered  to  an  estate  where 
the  Will  of  God  can  be  done.  We 
have  studied  the  method  of  Re- 
demption. We  have  seen  that  it 
is  accomplished  by  an  act  of  the 
Godhead,  prompted  wholly  by  love, 
wherein  sin  is  condemned  in  the 
sacrifice  of  One,  in  Whom  dwelleth 
all  the  fulness  of  the  Godhead 
1  Wescott,  Ep.  to  the  Hebrews,  p.  311. 
137 


The  Joy  of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice 

bodily.  The  Atonement  is,  then, 
one  stage  in  the  doing  of  the  Will 
of  God,  the  sweeping  away  of  one 
vast  obstacle  reared  in  the  path  of 
that  Will  by  the  lawlessness  of  Satan 
and  of  man.  When  sin  has  been 
condemned  in  the  Divine  Sacrifice, 
that  stage  in  the  doing  of  the  Will 
is  finished,  and  Christ  cries  from 
the  Cross,  "It  is  finished,"  and  the 
Joy  of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice  is  the 
Joy  of  God  in  the  advancement, 
to  a  new  stage  of  fulfilment,  in  spite 
of  the  Fall,  of  the  Eternal  Will  of 
the  Godhead  for  the  beloved  race. 
When  Christ  faltered  in  the  garden, 
before  the  unsupportable  humil- 
iation of  the  Godhead,  in  being 
brought  low  beneath  the  condem- 
nation of  sin,  when,  in  that  hideous 
contact  with  evil,  He  cried :  "  If  it 
be  possible  let  this  cup  pass  from 
Me ! "  then  He  remembered  that 
only  thus,  only  through  this  pro- 
foundest  of  all  humiliations  could 
138 


The  Joy  of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice 

the  Will  be  done,  could  the  con- 
demnation of  sin  be  effected  with- 
out the  doom  of  the  race ;  and 
loving  God's  Will  for  the  race 
above  all  else,  He  says :  "  Thy  Will 
be  done  !  "  Then,  when  He  came 
to  the  Cross,  He  saw  before  Him 
the  spectacle  of  that  redeemed  and 
recovered  race,  placed  by  His  own 
obedience  to  death  in  a  position 
where  sin  can  be  forgiven,  where 
God's  Will  can  be  done,  and  re- 
joicing in  that  thought  He  endured 
the  Cross,  despising  the  shame. 

Christ  rejoiced  in  the  reconstruc- 
tion of  human  society.  "  I,  if  I  be 
lifted  up  from  the  earth,  will  draw 
all  men  unto  Me."  "  This  He  said," 
adds  St.  John,  "  signifying  what 
death  He  should  die."  It  seems 
impossible  to  doubt  that  the  Person 
of  Christ  contained  the  Self-con- 
sciousness of  Godhead  when  we 
stand  in  the  presence  of  such  words 
as  these :  "  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up,  will 
139 


The  Joy  of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice 

draw  all  men  unto  Me."  If  He  were 
indeed  emptied  of  Godhead  by  His 
Incarnation,  so  that  He  spake  and 
reasoned  but  with  the  foresight  of  a 
man,  then  the  significance  of  these 
words,  as  conceived  in  His  own 
mind,  approaches  madness.  Thus 
to  speak  of  the  result  of  His  own 
death  seems  to  involve  an  almost 
irrational  confidence  in  the  charm 
of  His  personal  influence,  an  almost 
irrational  contempt  of  those  great 
time  forces  which,  with  the  icy  calm 
of  the  relentless  glacier,  slowly  and 
surely  override  and  bury  all  human 
influence  that  has  not  incorporated 
itself  either  in  the  literary  life  or 
in  the  political  life  of  the  world. 
Christ  had  not  deified  Himself  by 
literary  mastership ;  He  had  not 
imperialized  Himself  by  a  political 
coup  d'etat ;  He  had  nothing  where- 
with to  hold  the  world  but  His  pure 
and  simple  Personality.  Could  He 
rationally  hope  still  to  hold  the 
140 


The  Joy  of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice 

world  when  the  grave  had  closed 
over  that  Personality?  Yet  He 
says :  "  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up  from 
the  earth,  will  draw  all  men  unto 
Me."  He  spoke  with  the  self-con- 
sciousness of  Godhead,  and  so  speak- 
ing He  beheld,  with  a  joy  that  made 
even  the  Cross  and  its  shame  des- 
picable, how  His  Divine  Sacrifice 
should  become  a  new  centre  around 
which  a  race,  disorganized  by  sin  in 
all  its  thought  and  motives,  might 
rally  itself  again,  and  reconstruct  a 
new  social  order  on  a  basis  of  purity, 
truth,  self-sacrifice,  and  love.  He 
saw  from  His  Cross  all  that  we,  in 
our  day,  are  seeing ;  how,  wherever 
Christ  is  lifted  up  in  all  the  fulness 
of  His  Divine  Sacrifice,  men  and 
women  are  given  a  new  desire  to 
break  from  sin,  a  new  longing  to  be 
like  God,  a  new  tenderness  and  care 
for  one  another.  He  saw  what  we 
have  not  yet  seen,  because  the  time 
of  it  has  not  yet  come,  —  the  future 
141 


The  Joy  of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice 

magnificence,  catholicity,  and  peace 
of  a  Messianic  Kingdom,  where  all 
shall  know  Him  from  the  least  to 
the  greatest,  where  all  shall  be  one 
in  Him,  in  the  unity  of  consecration 
and  obedience,  even  as  He  is  One 
with  the  Father,  in  the  unity  of  the 
Eternal  Godhead. 

Christ  rejoiced  in  the  communica- 
tion of  the  Spirit  of  Victory  to  in- 
dividual lives.  "  Be  of  good  cheer, 
I  have  overcome  the  world."  Oh ! 
most  wondrous  of  all  thoughts,  to 
think  that  He  saw,  from  His  Cross, 
all  that  that  Cross  should  come  to 
mean  to  all  who  know  its  power,  as 
a  sign  of  Victory !  He  saw  the  weary 
and  heavy-laden,  toiling  with  leaden 
feet  along  the  path  of  life,  dis- 
couraged, overwelmed,  doubting  if 
life  be  worth  the  living,  chilled  by 
human  neglect,  stung  by  human 
unkindness,  ready  to  sink;  yet  in 
that  very  hour  catching  sight  of 
the  Cross,  feeling  the  thrill  of  its 
142 


The  Joy  of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice 

message  through  their  souls,  rising 
with  new  light  in  the  eye,  new 
strength  in  the  will,  new  peace  in 
the  soul,  because  the  Crucified  had 
said :  "  Be  of  good  cheer,  I  have 
overcome  the  world."  He  saw  the 
man,  the  woman,  the  child, pressed  by 
Satan  to  the  verge  of  self-abandon- 
ment, caught  in  the  toils  and  meshes 
of  unmentionable  temptation,  fever- 
ish with  conflicting  passions,  scorn- 
ing self  for  the  desire  to  yield,  yet 
ready  to  yield  because  self  had  been 
scorned  and  trifled  with  too  often; 
then,  on  the  very  verge  of  failure, 
remembering  the  Cross  and  beating 
down  Satan  under  the  feet,  because 
the  Crucified  had  said :  "  Be  of  good 
cheer,  I  have  overcome  the  world." 
He  saw  the  eyes  that  wept  till  there 
were  no  more  tears  to  shed,  the 
broken  hearts  that  envied  the  dead 
resting  in  grassy  graves,  "  Far  from 
the  madding  crowd,"  the  empty 
hands  and  emptier  lives  that  had 
J43 


The  Joy  of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice 

buried  all  that  kept  them  busy,  all 
that  made  them  want  to  live ;  the 
shattered  nerves  that  had  no  volition 
to  take  up  life  again :  yet  when 
grief  refused  to  be  comforted,  when 
misery  refused  to  think  of  aught 
except  itself,  the  tearless  eyes  saw 
that  Cross,  and  the  broken  heart 
resolved  to  be  unselfish  in  its  sorrow 
and  to  live  for  others,  because  the 
Crucified  had  said :  "  Be  of  good 
cheer,  I  have  overcome  the  world." 
He  saw  the  pallid  faces  of  the  dying, 
the  thin  hands  that  clung  so  wist- 
fully to  life,  the  eyes  that  closed  in 
terror  at  each  thought  of  the  advanc- 
ing shadow ;  the  minds  distracted 
with  natural  dread,  conceiving  of 
death  but  as  the  deafening  whirlpool 
that  engulfs  a  struggling  wretch ; 
yet  when  all  was  darkest  and  most 
confused,  the  Cross  was  held  before 
those  closing  eyes,  light  came  on 
those  pallid  faces,  peace  folded  those 
clinging  hands,  rest  composed  those 
144 


The  Joy  of  Christ  in  His  Sacrifice 

frightened  minds,  because  the  Cruci- 
fied had  said :  "  Be  of  good  cheer,  I 
have  overcome  the  world !  " 

Oh!  Joyful  Christ!  Oh!  Happy 
Man  of  Sorrows !  Well  might 
Thine  Heart  exult  even  as  it  broke 
upon  the  Cross !  For  what  glory 
lay  before  Thee  in  Thy  death ;  —  the 
doing  of  God's  dear  Will,  the  re- 
building of  a  social  order,  the  com- 
munication of  victory  to  innumera- 
ble souls,  —  well  became  it  Thee 
to  rejoice ;  —  much  was  before  Thee  ! 
"  When  Thou  hadst  overcome  the 
sharpness  of  death  Thou  didst  open 
the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  to  all  be- 
lievers. When  Thou  ascendedst  up 
on  High,  Thou  didst  lead  captivity 
captive  —  Thou  gavest  gifts  unto 
men ! " 


10  145 


VI 

THE   REJECTION   OF   THE 
ATONEMENT 


If  any  man  hear  My  sayings,  and  keep  them 
not,  I  judge  him  not ;  for  I  came  not  to  judge  the 
world,  but  to  save  the  world.  He  that  rejecteth 
Me,  and  receiveth  not  My  sayings,  hath  one  that 
judgeth  him ;  the  word  that  I  spake,  the  same 
shall  judge  him  in  the  last  day.  For  I  spake  not 
from  Myself,  but  the  Father  which  sent  Me,  He 
hath  given  Me  a  commandment,  what  I  should 
say  and  what  I  should  speak. 

GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

All  men  should  honor  the  Son,  even  as  they 
honor  the  Father.  He  that  honoreth  not  the  Son, 
honoreth  not  the  Father  which  hath  sent  Him. 

GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

He  that  rejecteth  Me,  rejecteth  Him  that  sent 
Me.  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  LUKE. 

He  that  believeth  on  the  Son  of  God  hath  the 
witness  in  Him ;  He  that  believeth  not  God, 
hath  made  Him  a  liar;  because  he  hath  not 
believed  in  the  witness  that  God  hath  borne  con- 
cerning His  Son.  And  the  witness  is  this,  that 
God  gave  unto  us  Eternal  Life,  and  this  life  is  in 
His  Son.  FIRST  EPISTLE  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

A  man  that  hath  set  at  naught  Moses'  Law 
dieth  without  compassion  on  the  word  of  two  or 
three  witnesses :  of  how  much  sorer  punishment, 
think  ye,  shall  he  be  judged  worthy  who  hath 
trodden  under  foot  the  Son  of  God,  and  hath 
counted  the  Blood  of  the  Covenant  wherewith  he 
was  sanctified  an  unholy  thing,  and  hath  done 
despite  unto  the  Spirit  of  Grace  ? 

EPISTLE  TO  THE  HEBREWS. 


148 


Chapter   VI 
The  Rejection  of  the  Atonement 

ONE  who  studies  the  Gospel  of 
the  Divine  Sacrifice  must  deal  with 
the  problem  of  the  Rejection  of  the 
Atonement  by  the  human  under- 
standing. The  question  is  raised  in 
the  New  Testament  itself,  in  the 
First  Epistle  of  Peter :  "  What  shall 
be  the  end  of  them  that  obey  not 
the  Gospel  of  God  ?  "  For  a  logical 
mind,  there  is  no  escape  from  that 
question,  be  the  attitude  what  it  may 
toward  the  Gospel.  Every  mind 
that  hears  the  Gospel  must  dispose 
in  some  way  of  that  which  it  has 
heard,  Because  the  Gospel  is  an 
appeal  to  every  mind.  The  person 
addressed  may,  on  the  one  hand, 
accept,  or  may,  on  the  other  hand, 
149 


The  Rejection  of  the  Atonement 

reject,  the  propositions  submitted  to 
him  in  the  Gospel  of  the  Divine 
Sacrifice.  In  either  case  he  is  en- 
titled to  his  opinion.  But  every 
mind,  whether  in  the  attitude  of 
acceptance  or  of  rejection,  must  face 
the  problem  of  rejection,  and  must 
reach  a  conclusion  concerning  the 
consequences  of  rejection.  The  con- 
clusion reached  by  one  may  be  that 
there  are  no  consequences  of  im- 
portance attached  to  the  rejection  of 
the  Atonement;  that  the  Atone- 
ment may  be  regarded  as  incredible, 
and  as  such  may  be  dismissed  from 
the  mind  even  as  a  thousand  other 
matters  are  set  aside,  without  involv- 
ing the  life  in  any  present  or  future 
trouble.  The  conclusion  reached  by 
another  may  be  that  the  Atonement 
is  a  message  from  God  to  man,  in- 
volving personal  redemption,  and 
that  he  who  sets  the  Atonement 
aside  must  ultimately  reckon  with 
God  in  the  position  of  one  who  has 
'5° 


The  Rejection  of  the  Atonement 

rejected  God's  message  and  refused 
God's  mercy.  These  are  opposite 
conclusions ;  and  as  a  matter  of  per- 
sonal liberty,  each  mind  is  entitled 
to  hold  whichever  conclusion  it 
chooses  to  hold. 

Between  two  individuals  holding 
opposite  views  on  this  subject,  there 
is  no  ground  for  quarrel  or  dis- 
pute. But  neither  is  there  ground 
for  complaint  if  one  shall  state 
frankly  to  the  other  what  he  believes 
to  be  involved  in  the  rejection  of 
the  Atonement. 

For  example :  It  is  within  the 
power  of  a  free  being  now  and  hence- 
forth to  reject  the  Atonement,  but 
he  not  only  may  not  wish  to  do  it, 
because  he  has  found  Christ  pre- 
cious ;  he  may  not  dare  to  do  it,  be- 
cause he  stands  in  terror  of  the 
consequences  involved  in  so  doing. 
No  just  charge  of  hardness  or  sever- 
ity can  be  laid  against  such  a  free 
being,  if  he  says  what  he  believes  for 


The  Rejection  of  the  Atonement 

himself  concerning  the  peril  of  re- 
jecting the  Atonement.  Every  word 
he  may  say  concerning  the  outlook 
for  those  who  reject  the  Atonement 
becomes  instantly  applicable  to  him- 
self, if  he  eventually  takes  the  posi- 
tion of  rejection.  He  is  only  saying 
frankly  to  others  what  he  would 
wish  another  frankly  to  say  to  him, 
for  the  warning  and  the  salvation  of 
his  soul.  We  will  approach  the  sub- 
ject in  perfect  candor,  and  if  we 
feel  constrained  to  carry  the  sub- 
ject to  its  conclusions,  we  will  give 
our  reasons  for  entertaining  such 
conclusions. 

Before  taking  up,  on  their  merits, 
the  grounds  and  the  consequences 
of  rejecting  the  Atonement,  a  sense 
of  the  seriousness  of  the  theme 
requires  a  definition  of  the  word 
"  rejection,"  and  also  calls  for  a 
statement  of  the  authority  upon 
which  one  ventures  to  speak  to 
one's  fellow-men  of  what  is  involved 
152 


The  Rejection  of  the  Atonement 

in  this  rejection.  Every  student  of 
English  knows  that  the  word  "  re- 
ject"  means  to  "throw  away,"  or 
"  to  cast  from  one,"  or  "  to  discard  " 
or  "  to  refuse  to  acknowledge." 
Through  all  these  shades  of  mean- 
ing, graded  from  a  violent  repudi- 
ation to  a  more  or  less  calm  and 
steady  opposition,  runs  one  com- 
mon idea, —  the  will  antagonizing 
a  proposition  presented  to  it.  Re- 
jection, be  it  violent  or  be  it  calm, 
implies  the  presentation  of  a  sub- 
ject to  the  mind,  the  consideration 
of  that  subject  in  the  mind,  and  the 
opposition  of  that  subject  by  the 
will.  A  mind  incapable,  for  any 
reason,  of  considering  a  subject, 
cannot  be  described  as  having  re- 
jected it  by  not  having  given  an 
assent,  which  it  is,  in  fact,  incapable 
of  giving.  Nor  can  a  mind  in 
ignorance  of  a  proposition  be  said 
to  have  rejected  that  proposition 
by  not  having  assented  to  that  of 
153 


The  Rejection  of  the  Atonement 

which  it  as  yet  knows  nothing.  The 
idea  of  rejecting  the  Atonement 
is,  obviously,  limited  in  important 
ways  by  these  considerations.  Mul- 
titudes who  have  died,  or  who  still 
live  in  the  earth,  without  giving  their 
assent  to  the  Atonement,  have  never 
rejected  it.  In  many  cases  they 
were  mentally  incapable  of  con- 
sidering it.  In  many  other  cases 
they  remained  in  ignorance  of 
it.  The  countless  little  children 
living  in  infancy  upon  the  earth, 
or  gathered,  as  we  assuredly  believe, 
in  our  Saviour's  Presence,  did  not 
reject  that  which  their  undeveloped 
minds  had  no  power  to  consider. 
The  multitudes  suffering  from  men- 
tal disease  could  not  reject  that 
which  they  were  incapable  of  ap- 
prehending. And  so,  also,  of  igno- 
rance. The  generations  of  heathen 
races  before  which  the  Cross  was 
never  presented  were  not  rejecters 
of  Christ.  "  How,"  says  St.  Paul, 
154 


The  Rejection  of  the  Atonement 

"shall  they  believe  on  Him  of 
Whom  they  have  not  heard?"  and 
we  might  add,  How  shall  they  re- 
ject an  Atonement  which  they  have 
not  an  opportunity  to  consider? 
And  the  same  must  be  said  of 
ignorance  in  Christian  lands  that 
is  said  of  ignorance  in  heathen 
lands.  Every  day  souls  are  being 
swept  into  eternity  from  these 
Christian  cities,  whose  parentage 
was  so  depraved,  whose  mental 
and  moral  life  was  so  perverted 
through  vicious  and  brutalized  or 
infidel  inheritance,  whose  poverty 
was  so  desperate,  whose  neighbor- 
hood influences  were  so  foul,  they 
never  knew  enough  of  the  Son  of 
God  to  make  an  intelligent  re- 
jection of  Him.  They  died,  as 
they  had  lived,  without  God  and 
without  hope  in  the  world.  It  is 
no  part  of  our  present  duty  to  speak 
of  the  questions  raised  by  what 
we  have  just  said.  To  consider 


The  Rejection  of  the  Atonement 

those  questions  now  would  be  to 
confuse  the  issue  before  us.  What- 
ever our  beliefs  or  our  hopes  may 
be  concerning  the  destiny  of  those 
who  through  infancy,  disease,  or 
ignorance  have  been  incapable  of 
apprehending  on  earth  the  Gospel 
of  the  Divine  Sacrifice,  our  reason 
and  our  moral  sense  compel  us  to 
see  that  their  relation  to  God 
differs  not  in  degree  only,  but  in 
kind,  from  that  of  those  who  reject 
the  Atonement.  Of  such  are  they 
who  have  had  the  Gospel  of  the 
Divine  Sacrifice  fairly  presented 
to  their  minds,  who  have  intelli- 
gently considered  it,  on  its  merits, 
and  who  reject  it  by  the  opposi- 
tion of  the  will,  whether  that  opposi- 
tion be  expressed  in  terms  of  violent 
repudiation  or  in  the  sustained 
attitude  of  calm  and  steady  refusal 
to  acknowledge. 

On  what    authority  does   the  in- 
dividual   venture    to    speak    to    his 
156 


The  Rejection  of  the  Atonement 

fellow-men  of  the  nature  and  the  con- 
sequences of  rejection  ?  Not  cer- 
tainly on  the  authority  of  private 
opinion.  That,  under  the  circum- 
stances, were  an  impertinence.  Nor 
does  he  speak  on  the  authority  of 
Christian  tradition.  That,  under 
the  circumstances,  were  but  to  set 
one  opinion  against  another.  He 
speaks  on  the  authority  which  has 
alone  been  claimed  for  all  that  has 
hitherto  been  said,  —  the  authority 
of  the  Bible  itself  as  the  Word  of 
God. 

Upon  our  findings  in  that  Word 
an  attempt  has  been  made  to  rea- 
son from  God's  Love  as  a  starting- 

O 

point  up  to  Jesus  Christ  and  Him 
crucified,  revealed  in  the  Sorrow 
and  Joy  of  His  Sacrifice  as  the 
Redeemer  of  the  race.  Continuing 
to  report  our  findings  in  the  Word, 
it  now  appears  that  the  Word  itself 
goes  far  beyond  the  mere  affirma- 
tion of  the  Divine  Sacrifice.  It 


The  Rejection  of  the  Atonement 

makes  knowledge  of  the  Divine 
Sacrifice  a  ground  of  personal  re- 
sponsibility, so  that  once  knowing 
the  fact  of  the  Atonement,  the  man 
becomes  involved  in  moral  relations 
toward  it  from  which  he  cannot 
escape.  The  reason  for  this  is  that 
the  Gospel  of  the  Divine  Sacrifice 
is  an  appeal  to  the  man,  who  having 
once  heard  that  appeal  addressed  to 
himself,  must  in  some  manner  dis- 
pose of  it,  either  by  acceptance  or 
by  rejection.  Christ  having  offered 
Himself  to  the  man,  the  man  must, 
by  the  necessity  of  the  case,  do  some- 
thing with  Christ.  Every  one,  be- 
liever and  unbeliever  alike,  should 
therefore,  for  his  own  information, 
fairly  confront  the  proposition  of  re- 
jecting the  Atonement,  and  should 
ascertain,  not  from  contemporary 
human  opinion  (always  tending  to 
local  fluctuation),  but  from  the  same 
unaltered  source  whence  comes  our 
knowledge  of  the  Atonement,  the 
158 


The  Rejection  of  the  Atonement 

consequences   involved  in   its   rejec- 
tion. 

For  those  who  have  long  lived  the 
life  of  faith,  worshipping  Christ  as 
God,  and  viewing  His  Sacrifice  with 
sentiments  of  adoration,  gratitude, 
and  affection,  it  may  be  difficult  to 
understand  the  grounds  on  which 
one  rejects  the  Atonement.  Never- 
theless, the  rejection  of  the  Atone- 
ment is  a  fact  more  or  less  prom- 
inent in  intellectual  life,  and  as  such 
it  is  to  be  reckoned  with  as  we 
reckon  with  any  other  fact  observed 
in  human  experience.  If  it  trans- 
pired that  the  Atonement  were  re- 
jected only  by  the  uneducated  or  by 
the  depraved,  we  might  conclude 
that  education  and  moral  uplift  alone 
are  needed  to  bring  one  into  sym- 
pathy with  the  Cross  of  Christ.  But 
we  find,  on  the  contrary,  among 
those  who  reject  the  Atonement 
minds  highly  educated,  highly  philo- 
sophical, highly  favorable  to  morality 


The  Rejection  of  the  Atonement 

and  religion.  If,  on  the  other  hand, 
we  found  the  Atonement  to  be  re- 
jected by  all  trained  and  command- 
ing intellects,  and  accepted  only  by 
the  lowly  and  the  unlettered,  we 
might  conclude  that  the  belief  is  a 
survival  of  superstition,  tending  to 
disappear  under  the  growth  of  knowl- 
edge. But  we  find,  instead,  many  of 
the  noblest  minds,  leaders  of  the 
world's  progress,  holding  a  faith  that 
worships  Jesus  as  Divine  and  regards 
His  Sacrifice  as  the  true  ground  of 
peace. 

Evidently  the  causes  leading 
individuals  to  reject  the  Atonement 
must  be  sought  deeper  in  the 
consciousness  of  man.  And  he  who, 
a  believer  himself,  longs  to  have 
others  share  this  noblest  of  faiths, 
need  not  remain  in  ignorance  of 
those  deterring  causes,  if  he  will 
approach  his  fellow-men  in  the  spirit 
of  sympathetic  inquiry  rather  than 
in  that  of  wholesale  condemnation. 
160 


The  Rejection  of  the  Atonement 

By  some  cultured  minds  and  gen- 
erous hearts  the  Atonement  is  re- 
jected on  grounds  of  sentiment. 
There  are  those  who  faint  at  the 
sight  of  blood.  It  is  nature's  protest 
against  pain  and  death.  Through 
a  corresponding  intuition  the  reli- 
gious instinct  in  some  rejects  with 
a  shudder  the  death  on  the  Cross. 
It  pronounces  the  horror  of  the 
Crucifixion  incompatible  with  re- 
ligion. Religion  should  comfort, 
uplift,  inspire  ;  not  horrify  the  im- 
agination with  a  vision  of  stream- 
ing blood  and  deathly  anguish. 
Religion  should  point  man  onward 
to  paths  of  moral  excellence,  should 
feed  his  intellect,  should  nourish 
his  ambitions ;  not  turn  his  eyes 
backward  to  a  far-off  scene  of 
misery,  nor  try  to  humble  his  pride 
before  a  distant  Cross.  And  so 
the  Passion  of  Christ  is  set  aside, 
the  Witness  of  the  Bible  to  the 
meaning  and  value  of  His  Sacrifice 
ii  161 


The  Rejection  of  the  Atonement 

is  ignored,  the  relation  of  God  to 
sin  is  put  from  the  mind,  and 
sentiment  prevailing  alike  over 
reason  and  revelation,  soothes  itself 
with  soft  words  of  peace. 

By  some  the  Atonement  is  re- 
jected through  inertia.  Speaking 
in  the  language  of  physical  science, 
inertia  is  the  tendency  of  a  body 
to  continue  in  its  present  condition, 
— if  at  rest  to  remain  at  rest,  if  in 
motion  to  continue  in  motion.  Too 
readily,  under  certain  conditions,  the 
mind  becomes  inert ;  ceases  from 
the  constructive  energy  of  urgent 
thought;  wearies  of  mounting  to 
new  planes  of  knowledge,  of  climb- 
ing to  advanced  conclusions ;  sub- 
mits to  stay  wherever  habit  has 
formed  its  boundaries;  learns  to 
think  in  grooves;  suffers  itself  to  be 
content  with  familiar  positions. 
And  thus,  by  some,  the  rejection  of 
the  Atonement  occurs  by  default.  It 
is  not  a  part  of  the  ancestral  teach- 
162 


The  Rejection  of  the  Atonement 

ing;  it  is  not  one  of  the  familiar 
ideas ;  to  grasp  it  demands  the 
constructive  energy  of  fresh  think- 
ing; to  rise  to  it  calls  for  the  strain 
and  the  push  of  the  mountain- 
climb,  up  from  the  beaten  track,  to 
higher  levels  and  a  keener  air. 
It  is  too  much.  Inertia  protests. 
Habit  conquers.  Christ  dies  while 
human  minds  reject  His  Atonement 
by  default,  through  lack  of  energy 
to  think  their  way  independently 
to  rational  conclusions. 

By  some  the  Atonement  is  re- 
jected through  a  misunderstanding 
of  the  Bible's  position  concerning 
it.  It  is  not  beyond  possibility  that 
the  Church,  in  its  sincere  effort  to 
win  souls,  may  at  times  have 
alienated  them  from  the  Cross  of 
Christ.  Rejection,  under  such  cir- 
cumstances, would  be  a  double 
sorrow ;  a  sorrow  that  one  soul 
should  reject,  not  the  Bible  doctrine 
of  the  Atonement,  but  some  per- 
163 


The  Rejection  of  the  Atonement 

version  of  the  Bible  doctrine,  taught 
in  all  honesty  by  a  zealous  Church  ; 
a  sorrow  that  the  Church,  loyal 
to  the  Master,  and  intending  to 
honor  Him,  should  unconsciously  so 
pervert  the  Gospel  of  the  Divine 
Sacrifice  that  it  becomes  a  stum- 
bling block  to  minds  equally  loyal  to 
their  own  ideal  of  truth,  and  equally 
intending  to  honor  God.  This 
mutual  misunderstanding  is  surely 
the  tragedy  of  faith,  a  tragedy 
whose  pathos  is  intensified  an 
hundred-fold  because  its  centre  is 
the  Cross  of  Him  Who,  in  His 
catholic  compassion,  tasted  death 
for  every  man.  Yet  it  is  not  easy 
to  escape  the  conviction  that  some 
have  rejected  the  Atonement  under 
mistaken  opinions  of  what  the 
Bible  doctrine  of  the  Atonement 
is  —  and  that  the  Church,  in  her 
very  zeal  for  the  honor  of  God,  may 
unhappily  have  corroborated  those 
opinions.  The  teaching  of  a  limited 
164 


The  Rejection  of  the  Atonement 

Atonement,  or  the  Death  of  Christ 
for  only  a  moiety  of  the  race;  and 
the  teaching  of  what  must  be  de- 
scribed as  the  vindictive  Atonement, 
or  the  Death  of  Christ  as  a  victim 
to  the  anger  of  the  Father,  may 
have  encouraged  some  truly  devout 
minds  to  reject  the  Divine  Sacrifice 
out  of  respect  for  God.  The  lim- 
ited Atonement  may  have  been  a 
stumbling-block  to  faith.  A  calm 
review  of  the  history  of  religious 
opinions  leads  one  to  see  that  the 
Gospel  of  the  Christ  may  have  been 
rejected  by  some  because  it  was 
impossible  for  them  to  believe  that 
God  had  deliberately  ordained  a 
portion  of  the  race  to  inevitable  sal- 
vation, abandoning  all  others  to  in- 
evitable damnation ;  and  that  Christ 
had  died  for  the  elect  only.  Such 
a  doctrine  of  God  seemed  incom- 
patible with  the  Morality  of  His 
Being,  yet  as  the  Church  appeared 
to  insist  on  that  doctrine,  the 
165 


The  Rejection  of  the  Atonement 

Atonement  was  set  aside,  and  relief 
was  found  in  a  non-evangelical 
theism  which  allowed  the  mind  free 
expression  of  its  intuitive  belief  in 
the  love  of  God.  On  the  other 
hand,  that  which  we  describe  as 
the  vindictive  Atonement  may  have 
been  a  stumbling-block  to  faith. 
When  the  Church  seemed  to  insist 
that  God  the  Father  was  full  of  rage 
toward  man  and  was  wishing  to  de- 
stroy him,  and  that  Christ  the  Son, 
full  of  love,  flung  Himself  between 
God  and  man  and  permitted  the 
rage  to  vent  itself  on  Him,  so  that 
now  a  pacified  God  deigns  to  love 
man ;  there  were  many  who  could 
not  endure  that  conception  of  God, 
and  rather  than  submit  to  it,  they 
refused  to  grant  the  Godhead  of 
Christ.  They  rejected  the  Atone- 
ment as  an  incredible  fiction,  and, 
taking  refuge  in  Unitarianism,  they 
revered  Christ  as  a  godlike  hero, 
whilst  they  worshipped  the  Love 
166 


The  Rejection  of  the  Atonement 

of  God  the  Father.  We  shall  never 
know  in  this  world  all  the  spiritual 
struggle  of  those  who  have  been 

oo 

compelled  to  withhold  allegiance 
from  the  Catholic  Faith,  and  to  en- 
dure the  pain  of  being  looked  down 
upon  as  unbelievers  because  they 
were  unable  to  accept  interpreta- 
tions of  the  Gospel  enforced  by 
ecclesiastical  authority.  This  sure- 
ly has  been  the  tragedy  of  faith, 
all  the  more  pathetic  because  the 
Church  has  been  moved  to  many  of 
her  most  uncompromising  positions 
by  the  noblest  and  purest  motives. 
She  taught  the  limited  Atonement 
that  she  might  exalt  the  Sovereignty 
of  God ;  and  she  taught  the  Anger 
of  God  as  appeased  in  the  Blood  of 
Christ  because  she  desired  to  em- 
phasize the  sinfulness  of  sin.  As 
one  thinks  of  this  whole  tragedy  of 
faith,  one's  only  confort  is  in  God 
Himself.  If  any  soul  ever  rejected 
the  Atonement  under  an  honest  mis- 
167 


The  Rejection  of  the  Atonement 

apprehension  of  its  meaning,  if  any 
soul  ever  set  the  Atonement  aside 
because,  as  men  depicted  Christ's 
Sacrifice,  it  became  a  barrier  against 
God  instead  of  a  way  to  God,  we 
know  that  He  to  Whom  all  hearts 
are  open  would  not  judge  of  one 
who  stumbled  before  an  error,  as 
of  one  who  set  his  life  obstinately 
against  the  Truth. 

But  when  these  misunderstandings 
are  removed,  when  the  broad  doc- 
trine of  the  Bible  opens  before  us, 
and  we  see  therein  God's  Eternal 
plan  of  love  for  the  race  ;  sin's  ca- 
tastrophe coming  in  to  oppose  the 
development  of  that  plan,  Love  pro- 
ceeding to  sweep  away  by  Atone- 
ment the  barrier  in  the  path  of 
that  plan ;  when  we  realize  that 
the  Bible  shows  us  the  Atonement 
as  the  act  of  the  Godhead,  ful- 
filled through  the  Incarnation  of 
one  of  the  Members  of  the  God- 
head, Who,  out  of  the  pure  love  of 
168 


The  Rejection  of  the  Atonement 

the  Godhead  for  us,  endures  humilia- 
tion and  tastes  death,  that  by  the 
condemnation  of  sin  in  His  own 
Person  He  may  satisfy  that  moral 
necessity  in  God's  Nature  which  de- 
mands sin's  condemnation  ere  its 
forgiveness  is  possible ;  when  the 
Atonement  is  seen  in  Bible  light,  as 
the  supreme  exhibition  of  a  Father's 
love  expressed  in  the  Son,  then  the 
situation  changes  as  to  a  man's 
responsibility  in  the  rejection  of 
that  Atonement.  If  it  be  concluded 
that  there  may  be  an  intrinsic 
reasonableness  in  rejecting  the 
limited  Atonement  and  the  vindic- 
tive Atonement ;  that  one  might  re- 
ject these  interpretations  of  Christ's 
Sacrifice  out  of  love  and  reverence 
for  God,  there  remains  no  such 
reasonableness  in  the  rejection  of 
the  Bible  Atonement.  For  the  Gos- 
pel of  the  Cross  as  presented  in  the 
Scripture  neither  antagonizes  the 
intuition  of  justice,  nor  affronts 
169 


The  Rejection  of  the  Atonement 

the  moral  sense.  It  appeals  rather 
in  the  highest  possible  way  to  our 
ideals  of  glory  and  love.  There  is 
nothing  to  reject,  nothing  against 
which  to  find  fault,  any  more  than 
one  may  find  fault  with  love  for 
being  unselfish.  Human  instincts 
accept,  acknowledge,  and  rejoice  in 
love,  and  the  same  instincts  lead  us 
to  accept,  to  acknowledge,  and  to  re- 
joice in  the  Atonement  as  altogether 
beautiful  and  glorious. 

When,  therefore,  after  compre- 
hending the  Bible  doctrine  of  the 
Atonement,  and  seeing  it  to  be  such 
as  we  have  described  it  to  be,  a  man 
still  rejects  God  in  Christ,  there 
remain  two  ways  of  accounting  for 
His  rejection  of  the  Atonement.  It 
is  rejection  because  of  unbelief,  or  it 
is  rejection  because  of  resistance  to 
that  demand  for  personal  holiness 
which  is  included  in  one's  acceptance 
of  the  Atonement. 

What  does  one  mean  by  rejection 
170 


The  Rejection  of  the  Atonement 

of  the  Atonement  because  of  un- 
belief? Unbelief  of  what?  Unbe- 
lief of  the  Bible  as  a  Revelation,  and 
consequently  of  those  matters  re- 
vealed in  the  Bible,  —  the  plan  of 
God's  Love,  the  necessity  for  sin's 
condemnation,  the  condemnation  of 
sin  in  the  Person  of  Jesus  Christ. 
But  one  who  takes  this  attitude  of 
unbelief  may  well  be  asked  to  con- 
sider the  responsibility  he  assumes 
in  rejecting  the  Bible  Atonement 
through  unbelief  of  the  Bible.  He 
assumes  the  responsibility  of  the 
burden  of  proof.  In  disbelieving 
the  Bible  one  is  fairly  bound  to 
show  cause  why  the  Bible  is  not 
credible.  In  order  to  defend  the 
position  of  unbelief  one  must  prove 
the  invalidity  and  untruthfulness  of 
the  Bible.  If  a  man  can  do  this,  he 
is  safe  and  logical  in  rejecting  the 
Atonement,  for  the  Bible  is  the  only 
source  of  testimony  to  the  Fact  of 
the  Atonement.  But  if  he  cannot 
171 


The  Rejection  of  the  Atonement 

disprove  and  overthrow  the  Bible, 
then  he  who  denies  the  Bible  Atone- 
ment (that  is,  the  Atonement  as  re- 
vealed in  the  Bible)  assumes  the 
more  serious  responsibility  of  giving 
the  lie  to  God.  "  He  that  believeth 
not  God,"  says  St.  John,  "  hath  made 
Him  a  liar,  because  he  hath  not  be- 
lieved in  the  witness  that  God  hath 
borne  concerning  His  Son ;  and  the 
witness  is  this,  that  God  gave  unto 
us  Eternal  Life,  and  this  life  is  in  His 
Son." 

There  is  another  ground  on  which 
one  can  reject  the  Bible  Atonement. 
Either  he  does  not  believe  it  (which 
involves  the  responsibilities  just 
considered)  or  he  does  not  want  it. 
He  rejects  it  because  it  calls  for 
personal  holiness  in  those  who  ac- 
cept it.  The  carnal  mind  is  enmity 
against  God.  In  the  last  analysis,  few 
perhaps  would  reject  the  Atonement, 
except  for  that  which  goes  with  the 
Atonement,  the  call  that  we  shall  be 
172 


The  Rejection  of  the  Atonement 

conformed  unto  Christ's  Death  by 
dying  to  sin  in  our  own  hearts  and 
lives.  We  do  not  want  to  have 
Christ  reign  over  us,  not  so  much 
because  we  disbelieve  Christ,  as 
because  we  like  to  indulge  a  sinful 
nature  and  we  hate  that  crucifixion 
of  self  which  must  become  a  part  of 
every  holy  life.  One  may  here  be 
asked  to  consider  what  this  means, 
—  the  rejection  of  the  Atonement 
because  one  does  not  want  the  cru- 
cified Christ  to  reign  over  one :  a 
God  humiliating  Himself  for  love 
of  man,  and  a  man  rejecting  the 
humiliation  of  His  God,  because  he 
cares  for  the  evil  things  on  account 
of  which  his  God  was  humiliated, 
more  than  he  cares  for  his  God. 

The  writer  finds  it  impossible  to 
close  this  chapter  without  appealing 
to  any  reader  who,  whether  from  in- 
ertia, or  from  hostility  to  ecclesiastical 
interpretations,  or  from  settled  dis- 
belief, may  be  withholding  from  the 
173 


The   Rejection  of  the  Atonement 

Gospel  of  the  Cross  the  allegiance 
of  reason,  conscience,  and  will. 

Discriminate  between  accepting  a 
man's  interpretation  of  the  Atone- 
ment and  believing  the  Atonement 
itself.  If  an  interpretation  of  the 
Divine  Sacrifice  can  be  suggested, 
better  and  more  Scriptural  than  that 
which  is  stated  in  the  foregoing 
pages,  by  all  means  adopt  it.  Reject 
the  interpretation  if  it  be  unworthy, 
but  let  not  the  rejection  of  the  inter- 
pretation include  a  rejection  of  the 
Fact. 

The  position  one  assumes  in  re- 
jecting the  Atonement,  whether  from 
unbelief  or  from  disinclination  for 
that  holier  life  required  of  a  believer, 
should  be  well  considered.  For  by 
such  rejection  one  thrusts  from  one- 
self the  only  defence  against  the 
moral  necessity  in  God's  Nature 
which  demands  the  condemnation 
of  sin  ;  and  when  we  consider  what 
that  defence  is,  even  God's  interposi- 


The  Rejection  of  the  Atonement 

tion  of  His  own  Self,  the  rejection 
of  the  Atonement  leaves  one  the 
position  of  not  only  rejecting  the 
defence,  but  of  insulting  the  defence, 
despising  the  goodness  and  forbear- 
ance of  God,  and,  to  use  the  words 
of  the  Bible,  "  treading  under  foot 
the  Son  of  God." 

The  question  that  rises  in  the 
future  before  one  who  rejects  delib- 
erately the  Bible  Atonement  should 
be  well  considered.  The  future 
must  be  met,  and  Christ  said  :  "  The 
word  that  I  speak,  the  same  shall 
judge  him  in  the  last  day."  The 
question  that  rises  in  the  future  is 
this:  Will  God  submit  to  you,  or 
must  you  submit  to  God  ?  God's 
nature  requires  sin's  condemnation. 
He  must  condemn.  "If  we  are 
faithless,  He  abideth  faithful ;  He 
cannot  deny  Himself."  Amidst  the 
present  interests  of  our  life  it  is 
difficult  to  grasp  this  thought  of  the 
condemnation  of  sin.  Let  one 


The  Rejection  of  the  Atonement 

ask  oneself,  Do  I  really  believe  in 
the  condemnation  of  sin  ?  The 
condemnation  of  sin  involves  the 
condemnation  of  persons.  Why  ? 
Because  sin  is  not  something  apart 
from  personality;  sin  is  a  condition 
of  personality,  sin  is  a  state  of  being. 
Unless,  therefore,  one  will  unite  one- 
self to  the  Sin-Bearer  by  a  living 
faith,  disowning  sin,  and,  with  Christ, 
dying  unto  sin,  one  must  bear  one's 
own  burden,  here  and  hereafter. 
Such  seems  to  be  the  New  Testa- 
ment teaching.  The  Atonement 
conceived  in  the  Heart  of  Godhead, 
and  consummated  through  the  an- 
guish of  Christ,  cannot  be  rejected 
with  impunity. 


176 


VII 

THE   PROBLEM  OF  HUMAN   SUFFER- 
ING  CONSIDERED   IN   THE   LIGHT 
OF  THE   DIVINE  SACRIFICE 


177 


And  God  saw  everything  that  He  had  made, 
and  behold,  it  was  very  good.  BOOK  OF  GENESIS. 

Man  that  is  born  of  a  woman  is  of  few  days 
and  full  of  trouble.  He  cometh  forth  like  a 
flower,  and  is  cut  down ;  he  fleeth  also  as  a 
shadow,  and  continueth  not.  BOOK  OF  JOB- 

The  wages  of  sin  is  death,  but  the  free  gift 
of  God  is  Eternal  Life  in  Jesus  Christ,  our 
Lord.  EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS. 

In  this  was  manifested  the  Love  of  God 
towards  us.  because  that  God  sent  His  Only 
Begotten  Son  into  the  world  that  we  might 
live  through  Him.  FIRST  EPISTLE  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

Blessed  be  the  God  and  Father  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  the  Father  of  mercies  and  God 
of  all  comfort,  Who  comforteth  us  in  all  our 
afflictions,  that  we  may  be  able  to  comfort  them 
that  are  in  any  affliction,  through  the  comfort 
wherewith  we  ourselves  are  comforted  of  God. 
For  as  the  sufferings  of  Christ  abound  unto  us, 
even  so  our  comfort  also  aboundeth  through 
Christ.  SECOND  EPISTLE  TO  THE  CORINTHIANS. 

When  we  were  come  into  Macedonia  our 
flesh  had  no  relief,  but  we  were  afflicted  on 
every  side :  without  were  fightings,  within  were 
fears.  Nevertheless,  He  That  comforteth  the 
lowly,  even  God,  comforted  us. 

SECOND  EPISTLE  TO  THE  CORINTHIANS. 

And  I  saw  a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth ; 
and  God  shall  wipe  away  every  tear  from  their 
eyes ;  and  death  shall  be  no  more,  neither  shall 
there  be  mourning  nor  crying  nor  pain  any  more ; 
the  first  things  are  passed  away.  And  He  That 
sitteth  on  the  Throne  said :  Behold,  I  make  all 
things  new. 

THE  REVELATION  OF  ST.  JOHN  THE  DIVINE. 


178 


Chapter  VII 

The  Problem  of  Human  Suffering 
considered  in  the  Light  of  the 
Divine  Sacrifice 

No  one  who  reflects  upon  the 
intricacy  and  the  mystery  of  all 
life  is  surprised  to  find  dark  prob- 
lems surrounding  the  condition  and 
the  destiny  of  man.  The  absence  of 
such  problems  would  be  a  greater 
mystery  than  their  presence.  Man's 
finiteness  broadens  out  on  every  side 
toward  God's  infiniteness,  and  life's 
mystery  is  also  life's  majesty. 

One  of  the  darkest  problems  sur- 
rounding the  condition  of  man  is  the 
problem  of  Human  Suffering.  Dis- 
appointment, unrest,  sorrow,  sick- 
ness, trouble,  death,  are  everywhere. 
Wherever  man  goes,  suffering  goes, 
179 


Suffering  and  Sacrifice 

lying,  as  it  were,  in  ambush  for  him. 
It  matters  not  what  man's  errand 
may  be,  the  best  or  the  worst,  suffer- 
ing awaits  him.  He  may  go  out 
into  life  as  the  teacher,  the  com- 
forter, the  missionary,  the  friend, — 
or  he  may  go  as  the  destroyer,  the 
robber,  the  seducer,  the  knave  —  go 
how  he  will,  and  for  what  he  will, 
he  surfers,  he  sorrows,  he  dies. 
Such  is  the  omnipresence  of  human 
suffering,  of  this  dark  enigma  of 
sorrow.  One  may  say  of  it  as  the 
Psalmist  said  of  God:  "Whither 
shall  I  flee  from  Thy  presence  ?  If  I 
take  the  wings  of  the  morning  and 
dwell  in  the  uttermost  parts  of  the 
sea,  even  there  shall  Thy  hand  lead 
me.  If  I  say,  Surely  the  darkness 
shall  cover  me,  the  darkness  hideth 
not  from  Thee,  the  darkness  and  the 
light  are  both  alike  to  Thee."  Who 
can  travel  so  far,  who  can  protect 
himself  so  thoroughly,  who  can  se- 
clude himself  so  profoundly  that  he 
1 80 


Suffering  and  Sacrifice 

shall  escape  from  trouble  and  sorrow 
and  pain  and  death  ? 

That  man  forever  attempts  to 
solve  this  dark  problem  of  human 
suffering,  to  give  some  rational  ac- 
count of  this  stern  condition  in- 
separable from  his  life,  is  the  result 
of  an  original  intuition  of  man's 
nature.  Involuntarily  we  tend  to 
trace  all  sensations  to  their  source. 
Walking  in  spring-time  through 
some  hollow  lane  of  Devonshire, 
we  catch  the  waft  of  violets,  and  lift 
the  eyes  to  note  the  bank,  purple 
with  bloom.  Standing  in  sunlight 
we  see  a  shadowed  form  outlined 
on  the  path  beside  our  own,  and  turn 
to  identify  the  friend  who  has  joined 
us.  Tortured  with  some  strange 
pain  shooting  through  the  head  or 
clutching  at  the  heart,  we  go  to  the 
physician  to  learn  what  lesion  is  its 
cause.  This  is  intuitive  inquiry  into 
the  causes  of  sensations.  And  the 
same  intuition  prompts  man  to  solve 
181 


Suffering  and  Sacrifice 

the  problem  of  the  universal  hu- 
man sorrow.  It  is  incredible  that 
rational  beings  involved  in  suffering 
shall  not  try  to  find  out  why  they 
suffer. 

Invariably  when  man  confronts 
the  problem  of  suffering  he  uses  his 
doctrine  of  God  to  aid  him  in  the 
solution.  The  history  of  human 
thought  in  all  times  and  in  all  re- 
ligions will,  it  is  believed,  be  found  to 
verify  this  statement.  By  a  compan- 
ion intuition  to  that  which  prompts 
man  to  ask  why  he  suffers,  man  is 
prompted  to  feel  that  God  is  in  some 
way  related  to  his  sufferings.  This 
would  be  true  in  the  case  of  an 
atheist,  if  there  exists  such  a  state 
of  mind  as  pure  atheism.  The 
atheist,  denying  the  existence  of 
God,  would  thereby  relate  the  con- 
ception of  a  God  negatively  to 
human  suffering,  saying :  "  There 
being  no  God,  the  God-idea  has  no 
bearing  whatever  on  the  sufferings 
182 


Suffering  and  Sacrifice 

of  the  human  race."  This  would  be 
true  in  the  case  of  the  agnostic,  who 
declines  to  commit  himself  to  a  posi- 
tive statement  of  belief  on  the  sub- 
ject of  God.  He  would  relate  God 
tentatively  to  human  trouble,  saying: 
"Pie  may  send  it,  or  He  may  not; 
in  the  absence  of  physical  demon- 
stration it  is  impossible  to  tell." 
This  would  be  true  in  the  case  of 
the  ethnic  religions ;  for  example,  in 
the  case  of  Zoroastrianism,  the 
ancient  Persian  faith,  with  its  dual- 
ism,—  two  co-eternal  gods,  arrayed 
against  one  another  in  ceaseless 
opposition  touching  man's  condition. 
There  is  Ormuzd,  the  god  of  good, 
sending  every  blessing  on  the  race ; 
there  is  Ahriman,  the  god  of  evil, 
showering  upon  humanity  woe,  dis- 
appointment, and  every  form  of  ill. 
These  illustrations  might  be  indefi- 
nitely multiplied,  and  in  each  case 
we  would  discover  the  tendency  of 
the  human  mind  to  place  a  doctrine 
183 


Suffering  and  Sacrifice 

of  God  in  some  relation,  negative, 
tentative,  or  positive,  to  the  problem 
of  suffering.  The  reason  for  this  is 
plain  ;  the  sufferings  of  the  race  are 
so  tremendous,  so  unceasing,  and  in 
innumerable  instances  so  out  of  pro- 
portion to  any  recognized  standard 
of  justice,  there  is  a  feeling  too  deep 
for  analysis,  too  axiomatic  to  call  for 
demonstration,  that  in  some  way,  if 
there  is  a  God,  humanity's  one  hope 
of  present  consolation  or  of  future 
relief  must  connect  itself  with  Him, 
and  be  evolved  through  Him.  Deep 
down  below  all  creeds,  the  hope  of  a 
suffering  world  utters  that  many- 
sided,  infinite  syllable  "  God,"  and 
feeling  the  problem  of  suffering  to 
be  greater  than  man  can  handle 
alone,  confesses,  sometimes  scarce 
knowing  what  it  means  :  "  To  whom 
shall  we  go  but  unto  Thee ! " 

When  we  confine  our  thought  to 
our  own  religion,  and  ask  in  what 
manner  believers  in  Christianity  have 
184 


Suffering  and  Sacrifice 

brought  the  doctrine  of  God  to  bear 
upon  the  problem  of  human  suffer- 
ing, we  behold  rising  before  us  that 
tremendous  and  venerable  concep- 
tion of  an  Infinite  One,  Whose  right 
no  one  may  dispute,  Who  has  fore- 
ordained whatsoever  comes  to  pass, 
Whose  Hand  is  in  all  things,  Who 
for  His  own  glory,  and  in  the  exer- 
cise of  His  own  sovereignty,  has 
sent  and  will  send  whatever  comes 
to  man.  As  the  mighty  peak  of 
Teneriffe  rises  in  imperial  majesty 
out  of  the  Southern  Ocean,  and 
sweeps  upward  twelve  thousand  feet 
into  the  glittering  sunshine,  ancient, 
motionless,  solid,  symmetrical,  silent, 
sharp,  white,  barren ;  while  around 
it  on  every  hand  stretches  the  waste 
of  the  troubled  sea,  with  the  swelling 
of  its  tides,  and  the  moaning  of  its 
surge,  and  the  ghastly  secrets  of  its 
depths,  and  the  interminable  up- 
lift of  short-lived  billows,  rising  in 
momentary  light,  to  sink  again  in 
185 


Suffering  and  Sacrifice 

darkness,  —  so  rises  this  metaphysi- 
cal conception  of  the  imperial  sov- 
ereignty of  God  into  the  highest  air 
of  abstract  thought,  in  infinite  self- 
removal  from  the  actual  level  of  the 
world's  experience  and  the  world's 
intuitive  sense  of  need.  Behold 
it,  poised  in  glittering  majesty,  a 
conception  of  God,  ancient,  motion- 
less, solid,  symmetrical,  silent,  sharp, 
barren,  a  peak  of  thought,  standing 
alone,  the  solitary  goal  of  a  few  ex- 
plorers ;  a  God  who,  from  His  eagle 
eyrie,  looks  down  on  a  world  where 
all  things  happen  as  they  were 
ordained,  where  evil  that  might  be 
stopped  is  infinitely  permitted,  and 
sorrow  that  might  be  spared  is  in- 
finitely sent.  The  troubled  sea  of 
human  lives  moans  and  heaves  about 
that  silent  peak  of  God ;  millions  of 
lives,  like  waves,  lift  themselves  up 
toward  it  in  momentary  hope,  and 
sink  away  into  the  mass;  and  deep 
in  the  heart  of  the  sea  of  human  life 
186 


Suffering  and  Sacrifice 

are  secrets  of  death  which  no  sun- 
light ever  reaches,  no  tide  ever 
sweeps  away,  no  voice  from  the 
barren  peak  ever  explains. 

It  may  seem  both  idle  and  pre- 
sumptuous for  one  man  to  question 
that  ancient  and  deep-seated  concep- 
tion of  God's  relation  to  human 
suffering,  as  if  one  were  to  stand 
before  the  peak  of  Teneriffe  and 
say,  "  Be  thou  removed,  and  be  thou 
cast  into  the  sea."  Nevertheless,  a 
man's  faith  has  Christ's  guarantee, 
even  when  it  attempts  to  remove 
mountains.  But  if  that  mountain 
were  never  removed,  if  the  prevail- 
ing belief  of  Christians  were  to  con- 
tinue to  be  what  it  has  so  long 
been,  it  is,  not  a  right  only,  but  a 
duty,  to  show  how  one  who  loves 
and  reverences  the  Bible  as  Divine 
may  start  with  the  pure  and  simple 
teachings  of  that  Word  and  reach 
conclusions  as  far  removed  from 
those  just  described  as  the  lofty  head 
187 


Suffering  and  Sacrifice 

of  Teneriffe  is  from  the  moaning, 
restless  waves  that  fling  themselves 
eternally  against  its  base.  Far  be  it 
from  the  writer  to  question  any  man's 
right  so  to  relate  God  to  the  problem 
of  human  suffering  as  may  best 
relieve  the  pressure  of  that  problem 
upon  his  own  mind.  It  js  well  if 
through  such  a  belief  as  has  just 
been  depicted  any  who  suffer  are 
being  comforted ;  but  there  are 
other  possible  conclusions  concern- 
ing God's  relation  to  suffering, 
which  appear  when,  as  now,  an 
attempt  is  made  to  consider  that 
problem  in  the  light  of  the  Divine 
Sacrifice. 

Those  who  have  followed  the  ar- 
gument through  the  six  preceding 
chapters  will  perceive  the  bearing 
upon  the  subject  of  human  suffering 
of  what  has  been  said  about  the 
causes  and  conditions  of  Christ's 
sufferings.  We  are  conducted  to 
our  present  theme  by  the  tendency 
188 


Suffering  and  Sacrifice 

of  our  previous  reasonings.  Com- 
prehensive thought  upon  the  Divine 
Sacrifice  must  lead  the  mind  ulti- 
mately to  consider  God's  relation  to 
human  suffering  in  the  light  of  that 
Sacrifice.  Furthermore,  intuition 
prompts  us,  as  we  have  already  re- 
marked, to  bring  our  doctrine  of 
God  to  bear  upon  our  doctrine  of 
suffering,  in  the  hope  that  the 
glory  and  the  joy  of  the  one  may 
relieve  the  gloom  and  the  stress  of 
the  other. 

The  belief  that  God  sends  trouble, 
that  the  calamities  and  miseries, 
the  pangs,  losses,  and  death  of  the 
children  of  men  are  in  a  mysterious 
way  according  to  His  Will,  is  a 
belief  repugnant  to  our  natural 
sensibilities.  It  can  only  be  held, 
in  connection  with  love  toward  God, 
,  by  the  aid  of  a  strong  and  submis- 
sive faith,  inasmuch  as  it  violates 
our  instinctive  conception  of  what 
love  will  do.  The  belief  that  a 
189 


Suffering  and  Sacrifice 

God  of  perfect  love  and  tenderness 
is  causing  directly  or  by  indirection 
the  grievous  sufferings  of  the  human 
race,  and  is  daily  adding  to  the  sum 
of  sorrow  many  thousands  of  freshly 
afflicted  hearts,  can  be  sincerely  em- 
braced only  by  an  heroic  effort  of 
faith  holding  in  check  our  natural 
inclinations  to  the  contrary  view. 
Yet  beyond  question  multitudes  have 
succeeded  in  this  effort  of  faith, 
and  have  loved  God  while  looking 
upon  Him  as  the  sender  of  their 
trouble.  Some  of  the  most  im- 
pressive and  majestic  exhibitions  of 
the  loyalty  of  faith  ever  witnessed 
have  come  from  saintly  souls,  quiver- 
ing with  the  anguish  of  earthly  sor- 
rows, yet  looking  in  their  agony  up 
to  God,  as  the  One  Who  sent  the 
bereavement,  or  the  maiming,  or  the 
disgrace,  or  the  sudden  poverty ; 
and  taking  the  blow  without  a  mur- 
mur, supposing  it  to  be  a  just  rebuke 
administered  by  Himself.  An  ex- 
190 


Suffering  and  Sacrifice 

planation  of  this  phenomenon,  of 
a  religion  that  develops  a  doctrine 
of  God  in  antagonism  to  those  in- 
tuitions of  God  which  He  has  im- 
planted in  us,  may  perhaps  be  found 
in  that  form  of  stating  the  doctrine 
of  God's  Sovereignty  which  has 
prevailed  since  a  very  early  time. 
To  the  peculiarities  of  this  form  of 
statement  we  have  referred  at  length 
in  earlier  chapters.  Its  two  most  im- 
portant peculiarities  are  these  :  that 
the  anger  of  God  against  man  has 
only  been  appeased  by  the  bloody 
Sacrifice  of  the  innocent  Christ : 
that  by  a  decree  of  election  which 
determines  destiny,  and  by  a  limited 
Atonement,  God  has  reserved  a  por- 
tion of  the  race  unto  an  inevitable 
salvation,  leaving  the  remainder  of 
the  race  unto  an  equally  inevitable 
damnation. 

These  are  leading   ideas   in   that 
ancient  mode  of  stating  the  Divine 
Sovereignity  which  has  prevailed  cen- 
191 


Suffering  and  Sacrifice 

tury  after  century,  often  accompanied 
with  extreme  intonations  of  fierce- 
ness and  threatening.  Generation 
after  generation  has  been  told  by  its 
teachers  that  God  is  angry  with 
man,  and  was  on  the  point  of  eter- 
nally damning  man,  when  Christ, 
the  heroic,  innocent  Sufferer,  in- 
terposed, and  by  His  freely  given 
blood,  slaked  the  fierceness  of  the 
wrath  of  God.  Generation  after 
generation  has  been  told  by  its 
teachers  that  God,  for  the  purpose 
of  demonstrating  His  Sovereignty, 
singles  out  some  by  a  decree  unto 
life,  abandoning  all  others  unto  end- 
less hell ;  and  that  Christ  died  not 
for  all  men,  but  for  the  moiety  of  the 
race  predestined  unto  life.  These 
teachings,  urged  continuously  and 
solemnly  upon  successive  genera- 
tions, and  handed  down  reverently 
from  fathers  to  children,  become 
not  only  the  substantial  and  unques- 
tioned substance  and  fibre  of  faith, 
192 


Suffering  and  Sacrifice 

but  develop  necessarily  just  such  a 
doctrine  of  sorrow  as  we  find  to 
be  so  widely  and  so  submissively 
held :  that  all  things  are  from  God, 
that  evil  not  positively  sent  is  neg- 
atively permitted,  amounting  there- 
by to  the  same  thing;  that  woes 
and  miseries,  as  well  as  all  other 
human  experiences,  are  parts  of 
His  Will,  and  in  accordance  with 
His  Plan  under  that  eternal  decree 
which,  from  before  the  foundation 
of  the  world,  necessitated  all  that  is. 
This  is  the  reasonable  conclusion 
from  the  existing  premises ;  and  the 
fact  that  man  is  God's  child  and 
made  for  God,  and  that  man  cannot 
live  without  God,  is  nowhere  more 
marvellously  shown  than  in  the  mag- 
nificent loyalty  with  which  suffering 
souls  have  clung  to  God  in  the  face 
of  a  doctrine  of  God's  Sovereignty 
which  teaches  them  that  He  is 
raining  the  blows  of  trouble  upon 
them. 

13  193 


Suffering  and  Sacrifice 

The  writer  distinctly  disavows  all 
intention  and  desire  to  oppose  the 
views  just  indicated,  and  the  vener- 
ated Confession  upon  which  they  are 
founded.  On  the  contrary,  he  re- 
gards that.  Confession  as  a  sacred 
monument  of  the  Christian  Faith, 
honored  of  God  throughout  many 
generations. 

But  for  the  sake  of  those  who  can- 
not accept  this  mode  of  stating  the 
Sovereignty  of  God,  and  who,  rather 
than  believe  it,  would  turn  from  God 
and  wander  out  into  the  darkness  of 
agnosticism,  staggering  under  life's 
intolerable  weight  of  trouble,  it  is  the 
reverent  and  humble  purpose  of  this 
book  to  suggest  an  alternate  doctrine 
of  God,  which  leads  to  an  alternate 
doctrine  of  sorrow,  when  the  problem 
of  human  suffering  is  viewed  in  the 
light  of  the  Divine  Sacrifice.  The 
starting-point  of  all  our  thought  in 
this  matter  is  that  the  Atonement  is 
not  the  cause  of  God's  Love,  but 
194 


Suffering  and  Sacrifice 

that  God's  Love  is  the  cause  of  the 
Atonement.  God's  eternal  attitude 
toward  man  is  Love,  the  love  of  a 
father  for  his  child.  This  love 
was  formulated  in  God's  Mind  be- 
fore the  foundation  of  the  world,  in 
that  Plan  for  a  beloved  race  that  we 
should  be  conformed  to  the  Image 
of  His  Son.  Into  the  world  came 
man  ;  godlike,  beautiful,  holy ;  wear- 
ing, as  the  very  diadem  of  individual- 
ity, the  inalienable  power  of  choice. 
And  God  saw  all  that  He  had  made, 
and  behold  it  was  very  good.  To 
man  in  his  splendid  innocency  and 
in  his  godlike  freedom  came  the 
tempter,  himself  the  outcome  of  a 
moral  tragedy  older  than  man,  and, 
working  on  the  unfallen  will  of  the 
new  race,  with  arts  and  influences 
second  only  to  the  power  of  God 
Himself,  the  tempter  drew  the  hu- 
man will  into  choices  contrary  to 
the  Will  of  God.  Thus  entered  sin, 
the  principle  of  disorganization,  con- 
'95 


Suffering  and  Sacrifice 

fusion,  and  catastrophe ;  blighting, 
weakening,  cursing  all  life  every- 
where ;  working  out,  under  the  per- 
petual misuses  of  law,  the  infinitudes 
of  sorrow,  pain,  disease,  weariness, 
death.  How  soon  had  the  scene 
changed !  Out  of  the  prehistoric 
book  of  Job  comes  the  grievous  la- 
ment over  a  fallen  race :  "  Man  that 
is  born  of  a  woman  is  of  few  days 
and  full  of  misery.  He  cometh  up 
as  a  flower,  and  is  cut  down.  He 
fleeth  also  as  a  shadow,  and  con- 
tinueth  not." 

The  Heart  of  God  was  full  of  grief 
as  His  beloved  ones  demeaned  them- 
selves in  His  Presence,  and  spurned 
their  birthright  before  His  Face. 
Yet  in  His  Heart  never  failed  nor 
wavered  that  great  Plan  of  love  for 
humanity.  He  yearned  to  forgive 
and  to  restore.  Yet  forgiveness  and 
restoration  could  not  come  without 
sacrifice ;  for  the  moral  necessity  of 
His  own  Nature  demanded  the  con- 
196 


Suffering  and  Sacrifice 

damnation  of  sin  ere  it  could  be  for- 
given. He  could  not  be  indifferent 
to  sin  ;  He  could  not  consent  to  sin  ; 
He  must,  by  the  moral  necessity  of 
His  own  Nature,  condemn  sin  as  an 
intolerable  condition  in  the  universe, 
an  intolerable  interruption  of  His 
Plan  for  the  beloved  race.  And 
the  Atonement  is  the  means  devised 
by  Divine  Love  to  meet  the  moral 
necessity  of  Divine  Holiness.  The 
Atonement  is  the  act  of  the  God- 
head. Christ  is  God  in  the  flesh  of 
man,  and  as  a  Member  of  the  God- 
head, enduring  the  condemnation  of 
sin  in  His  own  Person  as  the  Repre- 
sentative of  the  race ;  offering  His 
Sacrifice  for  the  whole  world  without 
respect  of  persons,  and  so  satisfying 
the  demand  of  God's  Holiness  that 
sin  be  condemned  ere  sin  can  be 
forgiven.  We  have  pondered  both 
the  Sorrow  and  the  Joy  of  Christ  in 
His  Sacrifice.  We  have  seen  His 
Sorrow,  as  He  viewed  sin's  hideous 
197 


Suffering  and  Sacrifice 

consequences  in  human  life,  and, 
with  Divine  hatred  of  sin,  condemned 
it  as  the  devilish  cause  of  human  woe, 
and  the  devilish  impediment  in  the 
path  of  God's  illustrious  Plan  of  love 
for  the  race.  We  have  seen  His 
Joy,  as  He  felt  Himself,  through 
His  own  sufferings  and  humilia- 
tions, brought  into  closest  fellowship 
with  all  human  suffering,  and  into 
deepest  comprehension  of  all  hu- 
man need.  He  looked  from  the 
eminence  of  His  Cross  to  the  far- 
reaching  results  of  His  Sacrifice: 
the  furtherance  of  God's  eternal 
Plan  for  the  glory  and  happiness  of 
man  ;  the  reconstruction  of  human 
society  on  a  new  basis  of  sympathy, 
purity,  and  aspiration  ;  the  ultimate 
victory  of  light  over  darkness,  of  joy 
over  sorrow,  of  good  over  evil ;  the 
coming  of  a  millennial  kingdom, 
when  the  vestiges  of  the  old  catas- 
trophe of  sin  and  death  shall  at  last 
be  done  away  for  all  who  are  united 
198 


Suffering  and  Sacrifice 

to  Himself,  and  when  for  them  there 
shall  be  death  no  more,  neither  sor- 
row, nor  crying,  nor  pain,  and  God 
shall  wipe  away  all  tears  from  their 
eyes. 

This  is  our  alternate  doctrine  of 
God.  Thus,  assuming  the  Inspira- 
tion of  Scripture  and  the  Godhead 
of  Christ,  we  interpret  the  Gospel  of 
the  Divine  Sacrifice,  self-consistent 
in  the  eternal  past,  in  the  mysterious 
present,  in  the  glorious  future :  Jesus 
Christ,  the  same  yesterday,  to-day, 
and  forever;  revealing  God  as  the 
Lover  of  man,  the  Sacrifice  for  man, 
the  Redeemer  of  man,  the  Comforter 
of  man,  the  Restorer  to  man,  at  last, 
of  that  long-lost  birthright  of  power 
and  peace,  marred  through  many 
generations  by  sin  and  sorrow. 

In  the  light  of  this  Divine  Sac- 
rifice we  now  view  the  problem 
of  human  suffering ;  and  lo !  the 
conditions  of  that  problem  are 
wondrously  altered.  The  suffering 
199 


Suffering  and  Sacrifice 

is  the  same,  but  the  problem  is 
changed.  The  darkest  enigma  hov- 
ering over  human  suffering  van- 
ishes when  we  believe  that  all  is  as 
it  is,  not  because  God  wills  it,  but 
because  the  blessed  Plan  He  willed 
for  the  world  is  thrust  aside  by 
man's  perversity.  The  trouble  that 
in  a  thousand  forms  fills  the  world 
to-day  is  the  melancholy  harvest  of 
generations  of  weakening  tendencies, 
mistaken  ideas,  sinful  propensities, 
and  foolish  choices,  complicated  by 
the  added  errors  of  each  new  day  of 
life.  Awful  as  that  harvest  is,  one 
can  yet  look  upon  it  without  de- 
spair in  the  light  of  the  Divine 
Sacrifice.  For  the  Face  that  we  see 
upon  the  Cross  is  not  the  face  of 
him  that  wrought  this  confusion 
and  wreaked  this  misery  ;  it  is  not 
the  face  of  the  enemy  that  sowed 
the  tares  of  evil  amid  the  wheat  of 
good;  it  is  the  Face  of  Him  Who 
loved  us  and  gave  Himself  up  for 


200 


Suffering  and  Sacrifice 

us ;  the  Face  of  Him  Who,  foras- 
much as  the  children  of  men  were 
partakers  of  flesh  and  blood,  Him- 
self also  took  part  of  the  same,  that 
through  death  He  might  destroy 
him  that  hath  the  power  of  death, 
that  is,  the  devil ;  the  Face  of  Him 
Who  bore  our  griefs  and  carried' 
our  sorrows ;  the  Face  of  Him  That 
sitteth  on  the  Throne  and  saith : 
"  Behold,  I  make  all  things  new." 
And  as  we  look  upon  that  won- 
drous Face,  marred  then  with  sor- 
row, radiant  now  with  victory,  we 
attribute  not  to  Him  any  share  in 
causing  the  sufferings  of  the  race 
for  which  He  died ;  we  soil  not  the 
lustre  of  His  Name  by  involving  it 
with  distresses  which  are,  directly  or 
indirectly,  the  outcome  of  our  sinful 
estate.  "  The  wages  of  sin  is  death, 
but  the  free  gift  of  God  is  eternal  life, 
through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord." 

Does    God   send   trouble?      Fear 
not  to  ask  and  to  answer  that  ques- 

2OI 


Suffering  and  Sacrifice 

tion  when  you  confront  the  dark 
mystery  of  human  suffering.  But 
ask  it  and  answer  it  in  the  light  of 
the  Divine  Sacrifice.  Answer  it 
not  in  the  presence  of  those  start- 
ling acts  of  judgment  recorded  in 
the  Old  Testament  Annals,  lest  you 
be  drawn  by  local  conditions  far  out 
of  touch  with  God's  essential  rela- 
tion to  man.  Those  Old  Testament 
acts  of  judgment  were  the  heroic 
measures  by  which  He  roused  to 
moral  consciousness  His  beloved 
race  when  it  had  sunk  to  that  abyss 
of  degradation  of  which  St.  Paul 
speaks  in  the  first  chapter  of  Ro- 
mans, when  the  very  sense  of  right 
and  wrong  had  vanished  into  insen- 
sibility, and  could  only  be  resusci- 
tated through  shocks  of  judgment. 
Take  not  those  peculiar  conditions 
as  your  standard  of  inquiry  in  answer- 
ing the  question,  Does  God  send 
trouble  ?  And  answer  not  that  ques- 
tion by  observations  made  along  the 


Suffering  and  Sacrifice 

narrow  groove  of  your  personal 
affairs,  lest  the  snare  of  a  perverted 
doctrine  of  Providence  capture  you, 
and  you  conceive  of  troubles  and 
worries  springing  from  evident  phys- 
ical causes  as  petty  persecutions  from 
God  to  drive  you  into  the  way  of 
righteousness.  Ask  the  question, 
Does  God  send  trouble  ?  as  you 
stand  before  the  Cross  of  Jesus 
Christ,  as  you  worship  Him  in  His 
Godhead,  as  you  realize  that  His 
Humiliation  is  the  supreme  expres- 
sion of  God's  hatred  for  sin,  as  dis- 
obedience in  its  essence  and  as 
sorrow  and  misery  in  its  results ; 
ask  it  at  the  Cross,  and  an  answer 
will  be  given  you  out  of  the  depths 
of  the  Divine  Sacrifice,  to  make 
you  sure  that  He  Who  died  to  re- 
deem the  race  is  not  he  who  by 
trouble  and  sorrow  is  making  men 
old  before  their  time,  and  breaking 
women  down  with  hardship  and 
anguish. 

203 


Suffering  and  Sacrifice 

But  when  you  have  asked  and 
answered  that  question,  Does  God 
send  trouble  ?  ask  and  answer  an- 
other, —  that  you  may  have  peace 
in  your  soul  toward  God,  —  even 
this :  Does  God  permit  trouble  ? 
Surely  he  who  permits  the  evil  he 
might  avert  does  not  remove  him- 
self far  in  our  thought  from  him 
who  sends  the  evil.  Fear  not  to 
ask,  then,  even  this  question  in  the 
light  of  the  Divine  Sacrifice :  Does 
He  permit  the  evil  and  trouble 
which  are  riding  rough-shod  over 
human  lives  to-day  ?  To  permit ! 
What  is  it  to  permit?  It  is  to  con- 
sent to,  to  grant  license  or  liberty 
to  do.  And  must  we  stand  before 
the  Cross  of  Jesus  Christ,  knowing 
that  the  sorrows  of  the  world  are 
directly  or  indirectly  the  wages  and 
fruits  of  sin,  and  say  that  God  gives 
His  consent  to  these  sorrows  and 
troubles  by  licensing  the  causes  that 
produce  them  ?  Say  it  if  you  must. 
204 


Suffering  and  Sacrifice 

Many  saintly  souls  have  said  it, 
and  say  it  to-day.  Some  cannot  say 
it.  For  them,  is  there  not  another 
answer,  even  this,  to  the  question, 
Does  God  permit  trouble?  No! 
He  is  against  it  as  He  is  against 
the  causes  from  which  it  springs. 
Why  then  does  it  exist  ?  Because 
man  is  free,  and  his  freedom  is  the 
one  thing  God  cannot  take  away 
from  him.  He  gave  him  the  free- 
dom of  his  volition  as  an  inalienable 
and  constitutional  gift,  when  He 
gave  him  his  being ;  and  it  is  man's 
misuse  of  his  freedom  that  makes 
this  world  a  world  of  sorrow.  It  can- 
not be  otherwise  until  man  is  sub- 
dued in  his  will  to  God.  It  cannot  be 
otherwise  until  each  member  of  the  re- 
deemed race  shall  have  consecrated 
his  personal  will  to  Him  Who  gave 
it.  For  those  who  may  never  do 
this,  there  remains  the  eternal  possi- 
bility of  producing  trouble  and  sor- 
row ;  this  possibility  makes  hell  on 
205 


Suffering  and  Sacrifice 

earth,  and  while  this  possibility  re- 
mains, if  earth  were  blotted  out,  hell 
would  still  be  left.  For  those  whose 
wills  are  given  to  God,  at  last  there 
shall  be  deliverance  from  all  evil,  — 
not  on  earth,  but  afterward, — where 
there  cannot  enter  aught  that  defileth 
or  maketh  a  lie ;  where  the  limita- 
tions of  earth  are  left  behind ;  where 
the  eyes  of  the  blind  are  opened, 
and  the  feet  of  the  lame  are  healed; 
where  the  inhabitant  shall  no  more 
say  "  I  am  sick ; "  where  death  shall 
be  no  more;  where  there  shall  be 
neither  mourning  nor  crying  nor 
pain  any  more ;  where  the  wicked 
cease  from  troubling,  and  the  weary 
are  at  rest ;  where  God  is  seen  at 
length  in  His  Beauty,  that  Perfect 
Beauty  of  Perfect  Love,  which,  on 
earth,  we  were  sometimes  slow  of 
heart  to  believe. 


206 


VIII 

THE   SOVEREIGNTY   OF  GOD 


207 


And  I  heard  as  it  were  the  voice  of  a  'great 
multitude,  and  as  the  voice  of  many  waters,  and 
as  the  voice  of  mighty  thunderings,  saying : 
"Alleluia,  for  the  Lord  God  Omnipotent  reign- 
eth.  Let  us  be  glad  and  rejoice,  and  give  honor 
to  Him. 

THE  REVELATION  OF  ST.  JOHN  THE  DIVINE. 

Thou  hast  put  all  things  in  subjection  under 
His  Feet.  For  in  that  He  put  all  in  subjection 
under  Him,  He  left  nothing  that  is  not  put  under 
Him.  But  now  we  see  not  all  things  put  under 
Him. 

EPISTLE  TO  THE  HEBREWS. 

For  He  must  reign  till  He  hath  put  all  His 
enemies  under  His  Feet.  The  last  enemy  that 
shall  be  abolished  is  death.  For  He  put  all 
things  in  subjection  under  His  Feet. 

FIRST  EPISTLE  TO  THE  CORINTHIANS. 


208 


Chapter  VIII 
The  Sovereignty  of  God 

FROM  all  the  many  Scriptures 
which  dwell  on  the  Sovereignty  of 
God,  it  would  be  difficult  to  select 
one  more  splendidly  representative 
than  that  from  the  Vision  of  St. 
John  in  which  he  declares :  "  And 
I  heard  as  it  were  the  voice  of  a 
great  multitude,  and  as  the  voice  of 
many  waters,  and  as  the  voice  of 
mighty  thunderings,  saying:  Alle- 
luia, for  the  Lord  God  Omnipotent 
reigneth.  Let  us  be  glad  and  re- 
joice and  give  honor  to  Him." 
This  is  a  prophecy  of  the  celestial 
Te  Deum,  of  that  final  and  most 
mighty  canticle  which  shall  ring 
through  eternity  when  God  is  truly 
seen  and  truly  understood  by  the 
H  209 


The  Sovereignty  of  God 

mind  of  man.  This  New  Testa- 
ment prophecy  is  Humanity's  ac- 
knowledgment of  God's  Sover- 
eignty —  not  God's  proclamation  of 
it,  but  Humanity's  voluntary  ac- 
knowledgment of  it.  Man  is  to 
pour  out  alleluias  in  Heaven  be- 
cause an  Omnipotent  God  is  on 
the  Throne. 

The  spontaneous  popular  acknowl- 
edgment of  sovereignty  is,  even  to 
a  republican  mind,  an  impressive 
and  thought-awakening  spectacle. 
Some  never  read  these  words  of  St. 
John  about  the  voice  of  the  great 
multitude  like  the  voice  of  many 
waters  and  of  mighty  thunderings, 
without  recalling  the  hour  in  which 
they  saw  Queen  Victoria  proceed  to 
the  Abbey  to  give  thanks  to  God 
for  fifty  years  of  sovereignty.  Four 
millions  of  her  subjects  lined  the 
route  of  that  stately  procession. 
Not  a  note  of  martial  music  stirred 
the  air  as  the  earthly  sovereign  went 

210 


The  Sovereignty  of  God 

in  silence  to  bow  before  the  King  of 
kings ;  but  as  she  came  along  the 
way,  from  afar  her  coming  was 
heralded  by  a  sound  the  like  of 
which  one  may  not  expect  to  hear 
twice  in  a  lifetime.  It  was  the 
shoutings  and  applaudings  of  mil- 
lions ;  and  as  that  strange,  unearthly 
torrent  of  sound  swept  down  the 
gorgeous  highway,  beneath  a  thou- 
sand banners  fluttering  from  the  red 
Venetian  masts,  one  could  without 
irreverence  think  of  it  as  a  type  of 
St.  John's  great  vision  of  Humanity's 
final  acknowledgment  of  the  Sover- 
eignty of  God,  the  spontaneous  testi- 
mony of  consenting  voices,  like  the 
surf  of  oceans,  or  thunders  from  the 
purple  cloud :  "  Alleluia,  for  the 
Lord  God  Omnipotent  reigneth." 

St.  John's  Vision  is  also  the  ac- 
knowledgment of  God's  Sovereignty 
by  man  at  the  highest  stage  of 
human  development.  This  is  the 
heavenly  Alleluia;  man's  highest 

211 


The  Sovereignty  of  God 

view  of  God.  It  is  a  declaration 
that  man's  belief  in  God's  Sover- 
eignty is  not  the  product  of  igno- 
rance and  superstition;  not  an  idea 
of  the  Dark  Ages,  a  glorious  fable 
fading  out  into  the  light  of  common 
day  as  science  advances  and  as 
physical  laws  are  better  understood  ; 
but  rather  that  this  thought  of  the 
reign  of  an  Omnipotent  God,  a 
thought  as  old  as  humanity,  is  con- 
firmed by  every  advance  of  knowl- 
edge, is  strengthened  in  the  conscious- 
ness of  each  succeeding  age,  as  the 
race  ascends  toward  its  final  destiny; 
and  becomes  in  heaven,  where  man 
is  at  his  best,  the  foundation  of  the 
highest  thought  and  the  confession 
of  the  final  faith.  The  Sovereignty 
of  God  is  the  Creed  of  Glorified 
Humanity :  "  Alleluia,  for  the  Lord 
God  Omnipotent  reigneth." 

St.  John's  Vision  is  also  the  ac- 
knowledgment of  God's  Sovereignty 
when  earth's  confused  story  shall  be 

212 


The  Sovereignty  of  God 

ended,    and    when    humanity    shall 
look    back    upon    the    earth-history 
from  the  vantage-point  of  a  superior 
state  of  being.     Earth's  history  has 
been  such  an  inextricable  web  of  con- 
fusion from    the   beginning,  such  a 
chaos  of  evil  and  good,  of  hideous- 
ness  and  holiness,  of  barbarity  and 
blessedness,    men    have    had    many 
minds    about    the    power    of    God. 
Some  have  swung  to  the  atheistic  ex- 
treme, and  have  said  in  their  hearts : 
There    is    no    God.       Some    have 
swung  to  the  fatalistic  extreme,  and 
have   said :    There    is    nothing    but 
God,  for  all  that  comes  to  pass  in 
the  earth  of  every  sort  is  the  Will  of 
God    the     Sovereign.     Some    have 
stood    between    the    two    extremes, 
hesitant  or  stupefied  in  the  presence 
of  life's  colossal  contradictions,  not 
knowing     what     to     believe,     what 
to    disbelieve;    afraid    of   faith,   and 
equally   afraid    of   doubt.     But   one 
rejoices  in  the  Vision  of  St.  John  as 
213 


The  Sovereignty  of  God 

an  aid  to  faith,  in  that  it  shows  a 
view  of  God  which  shall  ultimately 
prevail  in  the  mind  of  man.  When 
man  shall  reach  the  point  in  the 
future  whence  he  can  look  back  on 
what  now  seems  to  him  the  utterly 
confused  history  of  time;  when  he 
shall  read,  not  one  torn  fragment  of 
a  page  in  the  great  book  of  human- 
ity's world-chronicle,  but  the  whole 
vast  tome  from  cover  to  cover ;  when 
"  earth  breaks  up  and  heaven  ex- 
pands," and  man's  intelligence  studies 
God  with  eyes  no  longer  dimmed  by 
tears  and  blurred  by  mists,  —  the 
Sovereignty  of  God  shall  be  acknowl- 
edged with  an  unanimity  that  shall 
sound  before  the  Throne  like  the 
break  of  waves  and  the  peal  of 
thunder.  "  Alleluia,  for  the  Lord 
God  Omnipotent  reigneth  !  " 

And  yet  once  more:  this  is  not 
only    the    acknowledgment    of    the 
Sovereignty,    but    the    acknowledg- 
ment   that    the    Sovereignty    is    a 
214 


The  Sovereignty  of  God 

reason  for  gladness  and  rejoicing; 
that  the  Sovereignty  of  God  is  not 
tyranny,  not  cold,  impenetrable  fate, 
not  the  Kismet  of  Islam,  beneath 
which  conduct  becomes  submission 
to  the  inevitable ;  but  a  Sovereignty 
that  stimulates  to  love  and  happi- 
ness and  worship,  that  fills  heaven 
with  delight,  and  eternity  with  free- 
dom. "  Alleluia,  for  the  Lord  God 
Omnipotent  reigneth.  Let  us  be 
glad  and  rejoice,  and  give  honor  to 
him."  Thus  does  St.  John's  Vision 
reveal  a  conception  of  the  Sover- 
eignty of  God  upon  which  every 
mind  can  look  with  delight. 

Undoubtedly  the  Sovereignty  of 
God  is  one  of  the  root  ideas  of  our 
religion,  and  of  that  Hebrew  faith 
which  is,  chronologically,  the  parent 
stock  of  Christianity.  The  infinite- 
ness  of  the  Power  of  God,  His 
eternal  and  inalienable  seat  upon 
His  Throne,  His  authority  over  all 
things,  visible  and  invisible,  is  at 
215 


The  Sovereignty  of  God 

the  very  foundation  of  worship. 
And  nowhere  in  Scripture  is  God's 
Sovereignty  more  impressively  pro- 
claimed than  in  the  contrasts  drawn 
again  and  again  between  the  august 
dignity  of  Theism  and  the  pathetic 
attempts  of  idolatry  to  set  up  for 
worship  man-made  creations  that 
fail  at  every  point  to  satisfy  the 
hopes  of  those  who  trust  in  them. 
The  scene  on  Carmel  between  Elijah 
and  the  Baal  worshippers  is  immor- 
tal for  the  tragic  contrast  drawn 
between  the  Sovereign  Jehovah  and 
the  impotent  Baal ;  and  where  will 
one  find  anything  more  magnificent 
than  the  march  of  thought  in  the 
1 1 5th  Psalm,  where  Theism  is  set 
off  against  idolatry :  "  Wherefore 
should  the  nations  say :  where  is 
now  their  God  ?  Our  God  is  in 
the  heavens;  He  hath  done  whatso- 
ever He  pleased.  Their  idols  are 
silver  and  gold ;  the  work  of  men's 
hands.  They  have  mouths,  but  they 
216 


The  Sovereignty  of  God 

speak  not ;  eyes  have  they,  but  they 
see  not;  they  have  ears,  but  they  hear 
not ;  noses  have  they,  but  they  smell 
not ;  they  have  hands,  but  they  han- 
dle not;  feet  have  they,  but  they 
walk  not ;  neither  speak  they  through 
their  throat.  They  that  make  them 
shall  be  like  unto  them.  Yea,  every 
one  that  trusteth  in  them.  O  Israel, 
trust  thou  in  the  Lord ;  He  is  their 
help  and  their  shield." 

One  may  say  with  truth,  there  is 
no  discussion,  among  those  who  be- 
lieve the  Bible,  as  to  the  Sovereignty 
of  God.  That  is  both  assumed  and 
expressed  in  all  Christian  thought. 
Upon  that  Rock  we  build  the  entire 
structure  of  our  faith.  He  who  as- 
sails the  Sovereignty  of  God  as- 
sails not  only  our  religion,  but  the 
great  presupposition  on  which  reli- 
gion stands.  Shatter  or  even  shake 
that  Rock-Thought  of  God's  Sov- 
ereignty, and  our  religion,  built  on 
it,  collapses  like  a  flimsy  tenement. 
217 


The  Sovereignty  of  God 

But  while  belief  in  the  Sovereignty 
of  God   is   unanimous   and    unques- 
tioned, there  are  differences  in  the 
interpretation    of    that    fact,    differ- 
ences of  view  as  to  the  manner  in 
which     God    exercises    His    Sover- 
eignty.    The  minds  of  men,  by  rea- 
son   of   temperament,    training,  and 
others    influences,    study    the    Sov- 
ereignty   from    different    points    of 
view,  and  report  differently  concern- 
ing its  mode,   while  agreeing  abso- 
lutely in  the  fact.     The  Sovereignty 
of  God  is  regarded  as  a  fact  wher- 
ever Christian  thought  prevails,  but 
the  point  of   view  from  which  one 
sets  out  to  study  the  Bible  doctrine 
of  God  may  lead  to  conclusions  re- 
garding  the    mode    in    which    Sov- 
ereignty is  exercised  which  are  dif- 
ferent   from    those    entertained    by 
him   who  has    thought   his   way   to 
God    along   another   line   of    ideas. 
Each  should  do  full  justice  to  the 
fairness     and     consecration   of    the 
2x8 


The  Sovereignty  of  God 

other.  Each  should  think  less  of 
the  differences  in  individual  points 
of  view  than  of  the  oneness  of  the 
all-important  fact,  which  both  are 
contemplating  and  which  enables 
both  alike  to  say :  "  Alleluia,  for  the 
Lord  God  Omnipotent  reigneth." 

The  main  difference  between  in- 
terpretations of  the  mode  of  God's 
Sovereignty  lies  at  one  point,  namely, 
this :  There  are  those  who,  starting 
with  the  idea  of  the  eternal  decree  fix- 
ing in  advance  the  destiny  of  each  in- 
dividual in  the  life  hereafter,  reason 
with  relation  to  the  present  life  that 
everything  in  this  life  must  also  be 
fixed  by  the  decree,  and  that  the 
Sovereignty  of  God  consists  in  His 
absolute  control  over  all  that  is,  so 
that  nothing  comes  to  pass  save  as 
an  expression,  direct  or  indirect,  of 
His  Omnipotent  Will.  On  the 
other  hand,  there  are  those  who 
cannot  accept  that  interpretation  of 
Scripture  which  represents  God  as 
219 


The  Sovereignty  of  God 

fixing  in  advance  by  a  decree  the 
destiny  of  His  creatures  in  a  future 
life,  and  such  minds,  reasoning  with 
relation  to  the  present  life,  see  no 
necessity  that  events  in  our  present 
state  of  being  shall  be  fixed  by  a  de- 
cree. It  seems  to  them  that  the 
Sovereignty  of  God  stands  in  more 
harmonious  relation  to  the  other 
attributes  of  His  Character,  such  as 
Love,  and  Justice,  and  Truth,  and 
is  greatly  exalted  and  glorified 
when  it  is  regarded  as  carrying 
forward  an  eternal  Plan  of  Love, 
notwithstanding  those  adverse  con- 
ditions which  prevail  by  reason  of 
sin;  and  is  not  looked  upon  as  bring- 
ing to  pass  all  that  takes  place  in  a 
world  where,  apparently,  sin,  and  in- 
justice, and  dishonor,  and  cruelty, 
and  mistake  have  a  large  influence 
in  producing  the  conditions  which 
we  find  to  exist. 

It  is  assumed   that   the  reader  is 
familiar  with  the  two  interpretations 


The  Sovereignty  of  God 

of  the  idea  of  God's  Sovereignty 
here  briefly  delineated.  The  former 
of  the  two  theories,  that  which  attri- 
butes every  event  directly  or  indi- 
rectly to  the  Sovereignty  of  God, 
could  not  perhaps  be  better  summed 
up,  in  its  essential  intent,  than  by 
quoting  the  familiar  saying,  "  What- 
ever is,  is  right."  The  writer  yields 
to  no  one  in  his  admiration  for  some 
who  have  gone  through  life,  and  for 
some  who  are  now  valiantly  going 
through  life,  with  this  as  their  motto. 
He  appreciates  the  unflinching  loy- 
alty which  prompts  a  man  or  a 
woman,  in  the  presence  of  that 
which  by  every  instinct  of  nature, 
and  by  every  impulse  of  morality, 
one  inclines  to  pronounce  bad  and 
wrong,  and  cruel  and  infamous,  still 
to  say,  "  Whatever  is,  is  right."  That 
which  makes  such  a  position  pos- 
sible —  and  it  is  possible  for  many 
—  is  the  interpretation  put  upon  the 
Sovereignty  of  God ;  namely,  that 

221 


The  Sovereignty  of  God 

the  Sovereignty  of  God  is  impaired  if 
anything  takes  place  contrary  to  His 
Will ;  that  if  we  grant  the  occurrence 
of  events  in  which  God  has  had  no 
part,  we  make  the  Devil  greater  than 
God,  and  take  from  the  very  brow 
of  Infinity  its  crown  of  Sovereignty. 
If  this  interpretation  of  Sovereignty 
be  the  only  one  consistent  with  Scrip- 
ture, let  us  bow  to  it,  and  in  time  learn, 
from  the  example  of  some  whose 
characters  we  revere,  to  bow  to  it 
without  a  murmur.  For  we  cannot 
part  with  our  belief  in  God's  Sover- 
eignty without  parting  with  our 
religion;  and  if  it  must  be  that  the 
Sovereignty  of  God  cannot  be  main- 
tained on  other  grounds,  then  we 
will  take  it  on  this  ground  ;  we  will 
bow  to  the  inevitable ;  we  will  even 
say  "  Kismet  "  with  the  Mohamme- 
dan; for  we  cannot  live  without  God, 
and  a  God  there  cannot  be  without 
Sovereignty.  The  universe  is  void 
of  Deity,  unless  "  the  Lord  God 

222 


The  Sovereignty  of  God 

Omnipotent  reigneth."    A  God  with- 
out Sovereignty  is  no  God. 

It  is  fair  to  state  why  some  have 
felt  that  this  conception  of  an  ab- 
solute sovereignty  controlling  all 
events,  good  and  bad,  and  bringing 
to  pass  all  that  is,  is  not  the  high- 
est and  most  magnificent  concep- 
tion of  God's  Sovereignty  which 
the  mind  is  capable  of  entertaining. 
It  may  be  pointed  out,  in  passing, 
that  the  general  tendency  of  an 
advancing  Christian  civilization  is 
to  modify  and  soften  and  restrain 
the  more  extreme  views  of  sover- 
eignty which  prevailed  in  an  earlier 
and  less  intelligent  age.  The  sover- 
eign of  a  barbaric  or  semi-barbaric 
state  identifies  with  his  sovereignty, 
not  only  as  its  right,  but  as  a  con- 
dition of  its  existence,  the  freedom 
to  do  anything,  good  or  bad.  The 
sovereignty  of  the  semi-barbaric 
state  is  absolutism.  A  fair  example 
of  it  is  seen  to-day  at  Constantinople, 
223 


The  Sovereignty  of  God 

in  the  person  of  a  Sultan  issuing  in 
one  breath  rigid  instructions  for  the 
safety  of  resident  foreigners,  and  in 
the  next  mowing  down  helpless 
women  and  children  with  the  drip- 
ping scimitars  of  Kurdish  tribesmen. 
An  advanced  Christian  civilization 
knows  that  true  sovereignty  needs 
no  such  absolutism  wherewith  to 
maintain  itself;  that  sovereignty 
reaches  its  highest  dignity  when, 
self-limited  by  the  restraints  of  right- 
eousness and  mercy,  it  works  for  the 
larger  good  in  the  uplifting  of  men 
and  the  peace  of  nations.  So  also 
it  appears  to  some  that  the  Sover- 
eignty of  God  needs  no  such  sup- 
port as  that  theory  of  absolutism 
which  would  set  God  behind  all  the 
events  of  the  world,  the  indiscrim- 
inate Providence,  dealing  misery  as 
well  as  happiness,  confusion  as  well 
as  peace,  profligacy  as  well  as  piety, 
disease  as  well  as  health.  Some  ques- 
tion if  there  be  not  a  loftier  concep- 
224 


The  Sovereignty  of  God 

tion  of  a  Divine  Sovereignty  than 
this,  even  as  there  is  a  loftier  con- 
ception of  human  sovereignty  than 
that  which  corresponds  to  this.  But 
still  further,  we  question  whether  the 
Bible  does  not  directly  and  continu- 
ously say  that  God  is  not  in  every- 
thing, and  that  the  world  is  passing 
through  experiences  in  which  many 
vast  forces  are  at  work  which  in  no 
sense  represent  Christ,  but  Anti- 
Christ, —  that  which  is  against  God 
and  contrary  to  God.  We  question 
whether  the  Bible  does  not  directly 
state  that  the  Sovereignty  of  God 
is  not  now  supreme  on  earth.  If 
it  were  supreme  now,  if  whatever  is, 
is  right,  for  what  could  even  God 
ask  beyond  this  ?  But  does  not  the 
Bible  say  that  God's  Sovereignty  is 
not  now  supremely  effective  over  all 
life,  that  there  are  enemies  yet  to  be 
subdued,  and  that  it  is  to  be  supreme 
in  the  end?  Does  not  the  Bible  say: 
"  Thou  hast  put  all  things  in  subjec- 
15  225 


The  Sovereignty  of  God 

tion  under  His  Feet.  For  in  that  He 
put  all  in  subjection  under  Him,  He 
left  nothing  that  is  not  put  under 
Him.  But  now  we  see  not  yet  all 
things  put  under  Him.  For  He 
must  reign  till  He  hath  put  all  His 
enemies  under  His  Feet.  The  last 
enemy  that  shall  be  abolished  is 
death."  It  thus  appears  that  God's 
Sovereignty  needs  no  such  support 
as  that  which  those  devout  men  have 
sought  to  give  who  have  held  that 
we  make  the  devil  greater  than  God 
unless  we  regard  all  events  as  issu- 
ing from  the  One  Almighty  Source. 
What,  then,  is  that  interpretation  of 
the  Sovereignty  of  God  which,  in  the 
belief  of  some,  rises  to  a  higher 
plane  of  thought  and  leads  the  wor- 
shipper up  to  a  grander  view  of  the 
Divine  Majesty? 

Some  features  of  this  other  inter- 
pretation may  be  stated.     They  are 
stated  tentatively.     Some  may  adopt 
them  with  the  full  consent  of  reason, 
226 


The  Sovereignty  of  God 

affection,  faith,  and  will ;  daring  to 
take,  not  one  step  alone,  but  all 
the  steps  that  lead  the  mind  from 
the  Sovereignty  of  God  in  the  eter- 
nal past,  to  His  Sovereignty  in  the 
earthly  present ;  and  on  to  that  glo- 
rious outlook  in  the  eternal  future, 
when  all  things  shall  be  subdued 
unto  Him,  and  when  God  shall  be 
all  in  all.  For  those  who  can  take 
these  steps,  the  Sovereignty  of  God 
becomes  a  thought  of  enrapturing 
joy ;  and  even  here,  in  the  struggle 
of  the  earth,  one  seems  by  antici- 
pation to  take  one's  part  in  that 
great  canticle  of  the  glorified  :  "  Al- 
leluia, for  the  Lord  God  Omnipotent 
reigneth." 

The  Sovereignty  of  God  is  seen 
in  that  Infinite  Plan  concerning  man* 
conceived  in  the  eternal  past  by  the 
Mind  of  the  Omnipotent.  Before 
the  foundations  of  the  world  were 
laid,  there  lay  in  the  Infinite  Mind 
a  Purpose  to  make  a  race  of  beings 
227 


The  Sovereignty  of  God 

peculiarly  identified  with  Himself  in 
nature,  and  susceptible  of  develop- 
ment into  ideal  perfection,  according 
to  the  perfection  of  the  Christ-Image. 

The  Sovereignty  of  God  is  seen 
in  the  existence  of  man.  That  the 
creature  on  whom  the  Infinite  Mind 
pondered  in  Eternity  came  to  exist 
in  time,  is  an  act  of  Sovereignty. 
Whatever  theory  of  human  origins 
may  at  last  prevail,  the  fact  ante- 
dates all  theories  concerning  it. 
Man  exists.  He  finds  himself  upon 
the  earth.  The  Creator  has  created 
what  the  Sovereign  has  willed. 

The  Sovereignty  of  God  is  seen 
in  the  freedom  of  man.  Freedom 
is  the  crowning  endowment  of  the 
man.  That  man  shall  be  free  like 
God,  was  the  Plan.  That  man  is 
free,  is  the  sovereign  act  of  Him  Who 
planned.  This  freedom  is  freedom, 
not  the  burlesque  and  pantomime 
of  freedom.  This  freedom  implies 
the  power  to  sin.  Short-sighted, 
228 


The  Sovereignty  of  God 

we  cry  "  Oh,  why  does  God  make 
man  with  the  power  to  sin  ?  "  Ah  ! 
look  further  on  before  you  answer; 
look  on  into  the  future  ;  remember 
that  the  power  to  sin  implies  also 
the  power  not  to  sin,  and  the  Plan 
of  the  Eternal  shall  not  be  con- 
summated until  this  race  of  beings 
having  the  power  to  sin,  and  *for  a 
time  using  that  power  perversely, 
shall  reach  at  length  the  Godward 
use  of  freedom  in  perfect  union 
with  the  Plan  of  their  Sovereign. 

The  Sovereignty  of  God  is  seen 
in  the  unaltered  constitution  of  law, 
notwithstanding  man's  long  misuse 
of  freedom.  The  world  was  a  per- 
fect world ;  and  the  world  is  a  perfect 
world  to-day,  in  its  organic  structure 
and  law.  And  as  at  the  beginning 
man  found  that  certain  uses  of  his 
freedom  contrary  to  the  Divine  order 
of  the  world  would  bring,  in  the 
nature  of  the  case,  certain  results 
unfavorable  to  health  and  happiness, 
229 


The  Sovereignty  of  God 

so  he  finds  that  the  Divine  order 
of  the  world  is  unchanged  to-day, 
and  whoever  resists  it,  sooner  or 
later  breaks  himself  against  it.  But 
the  confusion  and  the  sorrow  are  a 
million  times  increased  and  com- 
plicated, and  the  innocent  are  help- 
lessly involved  with  the  guilty  by 
the  persistence  of  the  race  in  its 
misuses  of  freedom.  Man  listens 
to  the  evil  and  impure  spirit  when 
he  should  listen  to  the  Holy  and 
Divine  Spirit.  He  resists  the  Sov- 
ereignty of  God,  and  breaks  him- 
self and  others  to  pieces  against  the 
Divine  order  of  a  great  and  glorious 
world. 

The  Sovereignty  of  God  is  seen 
in  the  persistence  of  His  Plan  of 
Love,  notwithstanding  the  presence 
of  evil  and  the  activity  of  Satanic 
influence.  Can  any  one  ask  if  we 
are  making  God  less  than  the  devil 
when  one  looks  back  upon  the 
stupendous  progress  of  the  Plan  of 
230 


The  Sovereignty  of  God 

God  through  the  ages  of  history? 
With  sin  a  constant  possibility, 
growing  out  of  the  very  existence 
of  human  and  angelic  freedom  ;  with 
sin  a  fearful  fact  from  the  begin- 
ning; with  human  perversity  and  dev- 
ilish malignity  growing  more  intense 
at  every  point,  —  what  has  the  Sov- 
ereign done,  what  is  He  doing,  for 
the  race  He  loves?  Let  Christ  and 
Christianity  be  the  answer :  The 
Divine  Sacrifice  and  the  Universal 
Gospel.  History  is  the  answer  to 
those  who  think  that  God  is  put 
beneath  Satan,  when  we  cease  to 
count  God  the  Author  of  events 
which  are  incompatible  with  His 
Character.  The  victories  of  truth, 
the  growth  of  liberty,  the  triumphs 
of  Christ's  Gospel,  the  Mission  of 
the  Holy  Ghost  since  Pentecost,  tell 
us  that  He  Who  once  in  the  lonely 
wilderness  cried,  "  Get  Thee  behind 
Me,  Satan,"  is  the  Sovereign  Who 
is  grandly  working  out  His  Plan 
231 


The  Sovereignty  of  God 

under  conditions  adapted  in  all  re- 
spects to  the  inherent  and  inalien- 
able freedom  of  the  race. 

The  Sovereignty  of  God  is  seen 
in  His  constant  uses  of  evil  for  the 
education  of  the  race  and  of  the  in- 
dividual. He  Who  made  a  sinless 
race  with  power  to  live  in  untainted 
blessedness,  and  with  power  to 
plunge  itself  in  misery,  when  that 
race  takes  the  weaker  course  and 
plunges  itself  in  misery,  shows  His 
Sovereignty  in  no  more  marvellous 
way  than  in  His  power  to  overrule 
mistakes  and  calamities  and  sins, 
so  that  out  of  their  misery  may  come 
consequences  that  shall  help  toward 
the  redemption  of  the  race.  So  Saul 
is  converted  by  impressions  received 
at  the  bloody  death  of  Stephen ;  so 
countless  inventions  and  discoveries, 
of  infinite  consolation  and  help  to 
the  afflicted  race,  have  sprung  out  of 
conditions  wholly  produced  by  sin 
and  misery.  The  hideousness  of 
232 


The  Sovereignty  of  God 

disease  has  stimulated  the  power  and 
enriched  the  resources  of  surgery, 
and  above  all  else,  the  Holy  Spirit, 
dealing  with  Christians  plunged  in 
human  misery,  has  brought  out  spirit- 
ual results  of  patience,  heroism,  holy 
consecration  which  have  made  the 
name  of "  saint "  the  highest  and 
greatest  title  a  human  life  can  bear. 

The  Sovereignty  of  God  is  seen 
in  that  Vision  of  the  Final  Triumph, 
when  the  Plan  that  was  conceived  in 
the  eternal  past  shall  have  reached, 
through  and  over  all  hindrances 
perversely  thrust  in  its  way,  by  the 
freedom  of  fallen  men  and  devils, 
that  only  consummation  which  is 
possible  under  the  Omnipotence 
of  God.  Satan's  power  shall  be 
checked  and  chained.  Sin,  and 
those  who  persist  in  it,  shall  no  more 
hinder  the  onward  sweep  of  an 
Omnipotent  Purpose.  Death  shall 
be  swallowed  up  in  victory;  sorrow 
and  sighing  shall  flee  away ;  Man 
233 


The  Sovereignty  of  God 

shall  stand  glorified  in  the  Presence 
of  God,  and  shall  be  made  like  Him, 
seeing  Him  as  He  is;  —  and  God, 
the  Sovereign  of  all  orders  of  beings, 
the  King  Eternal,  the  Only  Wise, 
the  Only  Infinite,  of  Whom  are  all 
things,  by  Whom  are  all  things,  to 
Whom  are  all  things,  —  God  shall 
be  all  in  all. 


234 


IX 

THE    APPLICATION    OF    THE    SACRI- 
FICE OF  CHRIST  TO   THE  PRESENT 
CONDITION    OF    SOCIETY 


235 


Let  your  manner  of  life  be  worthy  of  the  Gos- 
pel of  Christ.  In  lowliness  of  mind  each  count- 
ing the  other  better  than  himself;  not  looking 
each  of  you  to  his  own  things,  but  each  of  you 
also  to  the  things  of  others.  Have  this  mind  in 
you  which  was  also  in  Christ  Jesus. 

EPISTLE  TO  THE  PHILIPPIANS. 

Bear  ye  one  another's  burdens,  and  so  fulfil  the 
law  of  Christ.  EPISTLE  TO  THE  GALATIANS. 

Herein  is  love,  not  that  we  loved  God,  but  that 
He  loved  us,  and  sent  His  Son  to  be  the  Propitia- 
tion for  our  sins.  Beloved,  if  God  so  loved  us, 
we  also  ought  to  love  one  another. 

FIRST  EPISTLE  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

Hereby  know  we  love,  because  He  laid  down 
His  Life  for  us :  and  we  ought  to  lay  down  our 
lives  for  the  brethren.  But  whoso  hath  the 
world's  goods,  and  beholdeth  his  brother  in  need, 
and  shutteth  up  his  compassion  from  him,  how 
doth  the  love  of  God  abide  in  him? 

FIRST  EPISTLE  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

The  grace  of  God  hath  appeared,  bringing 
salvation  to  all  men,  instructing  us,  to  the  intent 
that,  denying  ungodliness  and  worldly  lusts,  we 
should  live  soberly  and  righteously  and  godly  in 
this  present  world;  looking  for  the  blessed  hope 
and  appearing  of  the  glory  of  our  great  God 
and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  Who  gave  Himself 
for  us.  EPISTLE  TO  TITUS. 

And  Jesus  came  to  them  and  spake  unto  them, 
saying,  All  authority  hath  been  given  unto  Me 
in  heaven  and  on  earth.  Go  ye,  therefore,  and 
make  disciples  of  all  the  nations,  baptizing  them 
into  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of 
the  Holy  Ghost ;  teaching  them  to  observe  all 
things  whatsoever  I  commanded  you :  and  lo,  I  am 
with  you  alway,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world. 

GOSPEL  OF  ST.  MATTHEW. 
236 


Chapter  IX 

The  Application  of  the  Sacrifice  of 
Christ  to  the  Present  Condition 
of  Society 

WHEN  we  entered  upon  our  pres- 
ent course  of  thought,  we  defined 
Christianity  as  the  Gospel  of  the 
Divine  Sacrifice.  We  said :  Chris- 
tianity derives  its  name  from  Christ, 
its  meaning  from  the  Cross.  Chris- 
tianity reduced  to  its  simplest  terms, 
gives  "Jesus  Christ  and  Him  cruci- 
fied." One  purpose  has  run  through 
these  chapters :  to  unfold  a  doctrine 
of  God  consistent  with  Jesus  Christ 
and  Him  crucified,  to  see  God  in 
the  light  of  His  supreme  Self-reve- 
lation as  the  crucified  Saviour  of 
mankind.  It  remains  to  point  out 
some  of  the  ways  in  which  such  a 
Gospel  of  the  Divine  Sacrifice  as 
237 


An  Application  of  Sacrifice 

we  have  described  tends  to  modify 
our  opinions  and  our  conduct  as 
members  of  human  society ;  in  other 
words,  to  apply  the  Sacrifice  of 
Christ  to  the  present  condition  of 
society,  and  to  individual  personality 
and  conduct. 

On  general  principles,  it  may  be 
assumed  that  one's  social  opinions 
and  conduct  are  affected  by  one's  be- 
liefs. It  is  almost  an  axiom,  that  as 
a  man  thinketh  in  his  heart,  so  is  he. 
Motives  of  expediency  may  induce  an 
individual  to  affect  among  men  a 
manner  of  life  not  supported  by  his 
secret  convictions.  But  such  expe- 
dients are  usually  as  transparent  as 
they  are  hazardous.  What  society 
is,  commonly  represents  with  fairness 
what  society  believes.  This  fact, 
true  in  connection  with  so  many  of 
our  beliefs,  is  obviously  true  in  con- 
nection with  our  belief  about  God. 
One's  doctrine  of  God  determines 
largely  one's  doctrine  of  living. 
238 


An  Application  of  Sacrifice 

"  As  He  is,  so  are  we  in  this  world;" 
that  is,  our  conceptions  of  God,  of 
His  attitude  toward  man,  of  His 
purpose  for  man,  of  His  relation  to 
the  trouble  and  misery  of  life, 
strongly  influence  our  views  of  living 
and  our  opinions  on  many  subjects 
affecting  the  order  and  well-being  of 
society.  If  a  man  is  a  fatalist  in  his 
belief  about  God,  he  is  apt  to  be  a 
fatalist  in  his  opinions  about  men 
and  in  his  conduct  toward  men. 
Back  of  the  Turkish  atrocities  lies 
the  Turkish  belief,  —  a  fatalistic  doc- 
trine of  God.  The  bloody  foreground 
of  their  social  conduct  corresponds 
with  the  lurid  background  of  their 
faith,  which  is  fatalism.  As  God  has 
inexorably  determined  all  things,  so 
that  whatever  is,  is  that  which  was  to 
be ;  therefore  to  butcher  Armenians 
is  but  the  Will  of  God. 

As  far  from  fatalism  as  the  west 
is  from   the  east,  is   the  doctrine  of 
God  which  has  been  expanding  be- 
239 


An  Application  of  Sacrifice 

fore  us  in  the  Gospel  of  the  Divine 
Sacrifice.  Without  attempting  to 
re-state  in  detail  conclusions  which 
are  now  familiar,  a  few  sentences 
will  bring  out  the  contrasts  between 
conclusions  we  have  reached  and 
those  reached  by  others  as  earnest 
and  as  conscientious  as  ourselves 
in  their  desire  to  know  God.  It  is 
held  by  some  that  God,  by  an  eter- 
nal decree,  has  fixed  in  advance  the 
destinies  of  individuals,  appointing 
some  to  inevitable  salvation,  aban- 
doning others  to  inevitable  damna- 
tion. But  we  have  seemed  to  see  in 
the  Election  Scriptures  the  possibil- 
ity of  an  alternate  interpretation ; 
namely,  God's  eternal  Purpose  of 
love  for  the  whole  race,  that  it  shall 
be  conformed  to  the  Image  of  His 
Son  ;  a  purpose  whose  fulfilment  in 
the  individual  is  conditioned  upon 
the  will  of  the  individual  who,  made 
by  God  to  possess  the  power  of 
choice,  is  not  under  any  circum- 
240 


An  Application  of  Sacrifice 

stances  dehumanized  by  the  Maker 
through  the  withdrawal  of  that  in- 
dividual liberty. 

It  is  held  by  some  that  the 
Atonement  is  limited,  that  Christ 
died  for  the  elect  only;  but  we  have 
seemed  to  see  in  His  Death  a  uni- 
versal reference,  a  tasting  of  death 
for  every  man,  a  Propitiation  for  the 
whole  world. 

It  is  held  by  some  that  God's  atti- 
tude toward  man  is  one  of  wrath 
and  destructive  intent,  and  that  that 
wrath  has  been  appeased  only  by 
the  gracious  and  heroic  conduct  of 
Christ,  Who  has  interposed  between 
us  and  God,  to  save  us,  by  His 
Death,  from  God's  anger;  but  we 
have  seemed  to  see  that  the  purpose 
of  the  Loving  Christ  is  identical,  in 
the  Unity  of  the  Godhead,  with  the 
purpose  of  the  Loving  Father,  and 
that  the  Atonement  is  the  act  of 
the  Godhead,  whereby  Divine  Holi- 
ness condemns  sin,  that  Divine  Love 


16 


241 


An  Application  of  Sacrifice 

may  forgive  sin,  and  may  still  fulfil  its 
eternal  purpose  for  the  beloved  race. 

It  is  held  by  some  that  the  trouble 
and  miseries  of  life  are  in  accord- 
ance with  the  mysterious  Will  of 
God,  and,  for  some  inscrutable  rea- 
son, are  permitted  to  distress  man- 
kind ;  and  that  they  are  steps  in  the 
plan  of  love.  But  we  have  seemed 
to  see  that  all  misery  is  part  of  the 
universal  blight  of  sin ;  that  it  is 
not  directly  or  indirectly  permitted 
or  consented  unto  by  the  Will  of 
God ;  that  it  is  not  His  Plan,  but  is 
the  outcome  of  man's  innumerable 
and  constant  misuses  of  freedom ; 
and  that  the  Sovereignty  of  God  is 
shown  not  by  the  permission  of  evil 
foreign  to  His  Nature,  nor  by  licens- 
ing the  sin  which  causes  evil,  but  by 
bringing  onward  through  the  ages 
His  glorious  Plan  of  good,  and  by 
still  carrying  it  on  toward  its  final 
consummation  through  and  in  spite 

of  all  the  evils  wrought  by  sin,  and 
242 


An  Application  of  Sacrifice 

without  depriving  man  of  his  in- 
dividual right  of  freedom,  however 
much  man  may  abuse  that  right, 
and,  by  that  abuse,  hinder  the  Pur- 
pose of  his  Loving  Father. 

If,  as  we  have  already  remarked,  a 
fatalistic  doctrine  of  God  tends  to 
fatalistic  opinions  about  life  and 
fatalistic  conduct  toward  men,  it 
is  proper  to  inquire,  after  having 
stated  these  conclusions,  at  which 
we  have  arrived  through  studying 
the  Gospel  of  the  Divine  Sacri- 
fice, how  such  views  of  God  as 
these  modify  our  views  of  living,  and 
affect  our  attitude  toward  some  of 
the  modern  conditions  of  society. 
St.  Paul,  in  that  Epistle  which  con- 
tains, perhaps,  the  most  magnificent 
resume  ever  given  of  the  manner 
and  meaning  of  the  Divine  Sacri- 
fice, says  :  "  Let  your  manner  of  life 
be  worthy  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ ; 
in  lowliness  of  mind  each  counting 
the  other  better  than  himself;  not 
243 


An  Application  of  Sacrifice 

looking  each  of  you  to  his  own 
things,  but  each  of  you  also  to  the 
things  of  others.  Have  this  mind 
in  you  which  was  also  in  Christ 
Jesus."  As  those  magnificent  words 
come  to  us  we  look  forth  upon  the 
present  condition  of  society,  and  ask, 
How  does  the  Gospel  of  the  Divine 
Sacrifice  relate  itself  to-day  to  human 
society  ?  We  note  three  facts  which 
very  largely  cover  the  situation :  The 
Present  Crisis  in  Human  Society; 
The  Disastrous  Effects  upon  Society 
of  an  erroneous  doctrine  of  God; 
The  Hope  for  Society  contained  in 
a  true  application  of  the  Gospel  of 
the  Divine  Sacrifice. 

a.  The  Present  Crisis  in  Human 
Society.  It  is  a  large  thing  to  speak 
of ;  and  yet,  if  one  can  sketch  in  its 
outlines,  one  brings  it  within  range. 
Its  outlines  are  these :  the  growth  of 
knowledge,  the  growth  of  individu- 
alism, the  growth  of  irreligion,  the 
weakness  of  the  Church.  The  growth 
244 


An  Application  of  Sacrifice 

of  knowledge  is  the  great  modern 
miracle.  Knowledge  is  no  longer 
the  monopoly  of  a  class.  It  has  be- 
come the  common  possession  of  the 
race.  The  children  who  live  in  ten- 
ement houses  to-day  have  better 
advantages  than  the  children  in 
baronial  castles  three  hundred  years 
ago.  The  laborer,  going  to  his  work 
to-day,  may  buy  for  the  smallest  sum 
in  our  coinage  what  an  earl  of  the 
fifteenth  century  could  not  have  pur- 
chased with  a  sack  of  sovereigns : 
the  contemporary  news  of  the  world. 
There  was  a  time  when  knowledge 
was  the  forbidden  fruit,  guarded  by 
a  jealous  caste  from  indiscriminate 
depredations  of  unwashed  humanity. 
We  may  be  on  the  threshold  of  a 
time  when  the  possession  of  knowl- 
edge will  be  compulsory ;  when  the 
state  may  make  it  a  misdemeanor 
not  to  know.  As  the  result  of  the 
growth  of  knowledge  we  find  the 
growth  of  individualism.  When  men 
245 


An  Application  of  Sacrifice 

are  in  a  state  of  ignorance,  they  run 
in  droves,  like  dumb,  driven  cattle. 
When  they  get  knowledge,  they 
think  for  themselves.  And  the 
more  they  think  the  more  they 
differ;  the  droves  break  up,  turn, 
trample  their  drovers,  and  scatter 
into  individualism.  It  is  an  error  to 
call  anarchy  the  child  of  ignorance. 
Anarchy  is  the  child  of  knowledge, 
fed  on  false  ideas  of  God.  As  the 
result  of  the  growth  of  individualism 
we  find  the  growth  of  irreligion. 
"  Irreligious "  means,  ".destitute  of 
religion ;  "  "  not  controlled  by  reli- 
gious motives  or  principles."  Ac- 
cording to  the  terms  of  this  defini- 
tion, there  are  more  irreligious  peo- 
ple in  our  civilization  now  than  ever 
before.  Does  individualism  neces- 
sarily produce  irreligion  ?  By  no 
means.  If  that  were  true,  it  would 
mean  that  ignorance  is  the  protector 
of  religion.  There  is  no  natural  rea- 
son why  growth  of  knowledge  and  the 
246 


An  Application  of  Sacrifice 

corresponding  growth  of  individual- 
istic thought  should  lead  to  irreligion. 
Because  people  think  for  themselves, 
is  no  reason  why  they  may  not  think 
alike  about  God.     Why  then  do  we 
find  the  growth  of  individualism  fol- 
lowed by  the  growth   of  irreligion? 
Why  do  we  find  in  our  civilization 
immense  multitudes  who,  we  will  not 
say   antagonize    religion,  but   let   it 
alone,  have  nothing   to  do  with  it, 
live  without  it,  in   an  individualism 
of   pure   godlessness  ?      Because   of 
the  weakness  of  the  Church.     It  is 
not  easy  to  speak  of  the  weakness  of 
the  Church.     It  is  to  be  feared  that 
Christians    tend    to    exaggerate,    in 
their  own  minds,  the  strength  of  the 
Church.     They   see    it  through  the 
warm  light  of  enthusiasm  and  affec- 
tion.    In   many  ways  the  Church  is 
strong  as  a  factor  in  human  affairs. 
She  has  large  properties;  she  has  an 
influential    and    numerous   member- 
ship ;  she  has  heavy  moral  weight  in 
247 


An  Application  of  Sacrifice 

the  balance  of  current  questions :  and 
yet  over  the  individuals  who,  by  the 
million,  make  up  society,  the  influ- 
ence of  the  Church  in  this  age  of  uni- 
versal knowledge  and  independent 
thought  is  not  what  it  was  in  an  earlier 
age  of  greater  ignorance  and  lesser  lib- 
erty. In  that  earlier  age,  the  Church 
had  a  temporal  power  over  the  bodies 
and  properties  of  men  which  she  has 
long  since  surrendered  to  the  grow- 
ing forces  of  constitutional  govern- 
ment. So  also  in  that  twilight  age 
of  popular  ignorance,  the  Church 
could  appeal  to  men  through  their 
superstitious  fears,  and  could  hold 
them  by  her  mystical  threatenings 
in  ways  that  have  largely  vanished, 
and  are  destined  utterly  to  vanish  in 
the  broad,  unromantic  daylight  of 
common  knowledge.  While  losing 
these  artificial  aids,  characteristic  of 
less  intelligent  times,  it  does  not  ap- 
pear that  the  Church  has  evolved  any 
new  principle  of  leadership  suffi- 
248 


An  Application  of  Sacrifice 

ciently  powerful  to  draw  the  multi- 
tude in  this  great  modern  age  of  in- 
dividualism. It  does  not  seem  as  if 
she  had  enough  to  give  men,  to  keep 
pace  with  the  new  deeds  of  human 
society  developed  under  the  new 
conditions  of  advanced  knowledge 
and  entire  liberty  of  thought.  There- 
fore we  behold  with  the  growth  of  in- 
dividualism, the  growth  of  irreligion  ; 
the  decline  of  popular  interest  in  the 
Lord's  Day,  the  widespread  disposi- 
tion to  substitute  for  communion 
with  God  secular  humanitarianism ; 
and  the  culture  of  the  social  instincts 
for  holiness,  and  the  life  of  faith. 
This,  briefly  sketched  in  outline,  ap- 
pears to  be  the  Present  Crisis  in  Hu- 
man Society.  It  has  been  long  and 
slowly  coming,  as  growing  knowl- 
edge has  brought  growing  individu- 
alism, and  growing  individualism 
has,  through  the  weakness  of  the 
Church,  scattered  to  some  extent  the 
material  of  society  in  growing  irre- 
249 


An  Application  of  Sacrifice 

ligion.  This  crisis  is  now  upon  us. 
For  the  last  ten  or  twenty  years 
Christians  have  slowly  been  waking 
up  to  it.  To-day  they  are  awake. 
Awake  to  two  facts:  on  the  one 
hand,  the  disastrous  effects  upon 
society  of  a  mistaken  doctrine  of 
God;  on  the  other  hand,  the  hope 
for  society  contained  in  a  true  ap- 
plication of  the  Gospel  of  the  Divine 
Sacrifice. 

b.  It  has  already  been  said  that 
growing  irreligion  is  not  a  necessary 
result  of  growing  knowledge.  It 
cannot  be  that  He  Who  is  the 
Source  of  all  knowledge  has  made 
man  so  that  knowledge  pulls  him 
away  from  God.  It  cannot  be  that 
He  Who  redeemed  Humanity  by  a 
Divine  Sacrifice  and  has  established 
His  Church  in  the  earth  for  a  wit- 
ness to  His  Sacrifice,  has  built  that 
Church  on  lines  so  narrow  that 
society  outgrows  the  Church  by 
ceasing  to  be  ignorant  and  super- 
250 


An  Application  of  Sacrifice 

stitious,  and  by  becoming  intelligent 
and  free  to  think  for  itself.  This 
supposition  is  incredible.  It  can  be 
raised  only  to  be  dismissed.  But  an- 
other question  rises  in  its  stead  that 
cannot  be  waived  aside.  Has  the 
Church  weakened  herself  by  teaching 
a  doctrine  of  God,  and  a  doctrine  of 
the  Church,  and  a  doctrine  of  human- 
ity which,  however  conscientiously 
taught,  has  failed  to  express  the  deep- 
est meaning  of  that  Gospel  which 
Christ  delivered  to  the  world  ?  Has 
the  Church  built  up  a  theory  of  God 
which  has  made  it  hard  for  human- 
ity to  fling  itself,  with  all  its  sin  and 
sorrow,  upon  the  Heart  of  God  ? 
Has  the  Church  made  God  seem 
to  be  other  than  He  is  —  an  angry 
Sovereign,  damning  unborn  genera- 
tions for  uncommitted  sins  ;  a  vindic- 
tive Judge,  seizing  the  innocent 
Christ  and  slaying  Him  for  the 
guilty  ;  a  pitiless  oppressor,  beat- 
ing a  helpless  race  with  the  nine- 
251 


An  Application  of  Sacrifice 

tailed  whip  of  misery,  sorrow,  acci- 
dent, disease,  poverty,  overwork, 
death  ?  As  the  conditions  of  hu- 
man society  change,  as  superstition 
melts  away  before  the  growth  of 
knowledge,  as  constitutional  liberty 
strikes  off  the  fetters  from  human 
thought,  it  is  possible  that  the 
traditional  doctrine  of  God,  by  fail- 
ing to  express  the  fulness  of  the 
Gospel,  may  have  had  something  to 
do  with  that  popular  cry  of  to-day 
that  the  old  Church  teachings  are 
outgrown  by  men  of  thought.  If 
that  cry  could  only  be  modified  in 
one  single  particular,  possibly  it 
would  state  a  truth.  The  Uni- 
tarians are  right  in  their  "forward 
movement,"  as  far  as  it  goes ;  right 
in  saying  that  the  thought  of  men 
appears  to  be  growing  away  from 
some  of  the  old  Church  reaching, 
and  to  be  approaching  the  point 
where  Christian  religion  shall  be 
understood  to  be  an  expression  on 
252 


An  Application  of  Sacrifice 

earth  of  the  spirit  of  Jesus  Christ. 
Can  they  not  go  one  step  farther? 
Can  they  not  advance  to  the  super- 
naturalism  of  the  New  Testament? 
Can  they  not  acknowledge  Who 
Jesus  Christ  is,  according  to  the 
New  Testament,  and  admit  that 
Christianity  is  the  expression  on 
earth  of  the  Gospel  of  the  Divine 
Sacrifice,  God  giving  Himself  on 
earth  in  love  for  man  ?  The  best 
thought  of  the  world  has  not  out- 
grown the  New  Testament.  The 
best  thought  of  the  world  is  grow- 
ing toward  the  New  Testament,  and 
toward  the  magnificent  proportions 
of  that  doctrine  of  God  which  is 
announced  to  the  world  in  the  Gos- 
pel of  the  Divine  Sacrifice. 

c.  If  it  be  true  that  an  erroneous 
doctrine  of  God  is  a  vital  disaster  to 
society,  then  one  is  justified  in  say- 
ing that  the  hope  for  society,  under 
its  present  conditions,  would  be  con- 
tained in  a  true  application  to  those 
253 


An  Application  of  Sacrifice 

conditions  of  the  Gospel  of  the 
Divine  Sacrifice.  The  hope  that  is 
bound  up  for  mankind  with  a  widen- 
ing appreciation  of  God  as  He  is 
revealed  in  the  Atonement,  is  the 
most  blessed  theme  of  which  a  man 
can  speak.  We  stand  at  a  point  in 
the  history  of  religious  thought 
when,  like  the  light  of  the  sunrise 
touching  peak  after  peak  of  the 
mountains  or  glorifying  league  after 
league  of  the  sea,  there  is  spread- 
ing from  mind  to  mind  a  new  con- 
ception of  that  ancient  Gospel — 
God  is  Love.  The  old  earth-born 
gloomy  cloud  is  passing  away  from 
between  man  and  the  Face  of  God. 
The  lurid  scholastic  legends  of 
Divine  anger  and  revenge  and  de- 
structive intent  are  fading  from  the 
minds  of  men ;  and  suffering  hu- 
manity, lifting  up  its  eyes  in  earthly 
torment,  is  beginning  to  discern  the 
light  of  the  knowledge  of  the  glory 
of  God  in  the  Face  of  Jesus  Christ. 
254 


An  Application  of  Sacrifice 

And  our  religion  is  beginning  to 
recover  the  primitive  New  Testa- 
ment conception  of  the  Atonement, 
as  God's  sorrowing  act  of  Self- 
humiliation,  inspired  by  His  immor- 
tal love  for  us  men,  His  immortal 
desire  for  our  salvation  ;  and  we  are 
beginning  to  believe  that  what  Hu- 
manity most  needs  is  that  revelation 
of  the  Love  of  God,  that  inspiration 
to  a  better  life,  that  consolation  in 
trouble,  and  that  tender,  redemptive 
help  in  weakness  and  temptation 
and  failure  which  were  revealed 
once  for  all  in  the  Gospel  of  the 
Divine  Sacrifice.  The  words  of  St. 
John  are  coming  back  to  the  best 
thought  of  men,  in  these  last  days, 
like  a  long  lost  chord  of  music : 
"Herein  is  love,  not  that  we  loved 
God,  but  that  He  loved  us,  and  sent 
His  Son  to  be  the  Propitiation  for 
our  sins.  Beloved,  if  God  so  loved 
us,  we  also  ought  to  love  one 
another."  It  is  the  beginning  of  a 
255 


An  Application  of  Sacrifice 

new  era,  and  if  its  consummation 
be  not  suddenly  hastened  by  the 
glorious  appearing  of  our  Great  God 
and  Saviour,  Jesus  Christ,  we  shall 
see  this  new  spirit  of  love  giving 
back  to  the  Church  all  the  influence 
over  human  thought  she  seemed  to 
be  losing  when,  with  the  growth  of 
knowledge,  men  seemed  to  be  out- 
growing faith.  Men  cannot  out- 
grow faith,  if  that  faith  be  founded 
in  a  true  doctrine  of  God.  The 
growth  of  knowledge  only  broadens 
those  faculties  by  which  we  know 
the  value  of  truth,  and  the  best 
thought  of  men  ever  grows  toward, 
not  away  from,  a  true  doctrine  of  God, 
for  man  intuitively  feels  and  con- 
fesses his  need  of  God.  And  if  this 
true  doctrine  of  God  can  be  set 
forth  before  human  society  in  all  its 
height  and  depth  and  length  and 
breadth,  if  God  can  at  length  be 
shown  to  men  as  He  is,  the  Friend 
and  Lover  of  all  souls,  Who  came 
256 


An  Application  of  Sacrifice 

of  His  own  free  will  into  this  world 
to  seek  and  to  save,  Who  has  tasted 
death  "for  us  men  and  for  our  salva- 
tion," Who  suffers  with  man  in  all 
his  sorrows  and  needs,  and  Who  is 
working  out  for  man  a  glorious 
destiny  in  which  the  strongest  and 
the  weakest  alike  may  share,  we 
shall  see,  and  even  now  are  we  be- 
ginning to  see,  how  Jesus  Christ  and 
Him  crucified  may  alter  the  opin- 
ions and  the  conduct  of  men  in  the 
twentieth  century.  Changes  that 
are  now  only  in  their  slow  begin- 
ning will  mature;  opinions  that 
are  now  held  only  by  a  few  will 
strengthen  into  general  convictions; 
In  the  treatment  of  criminals,  in  the 
growth  of  social  tenderness,  in  the 
progress  of  Catholic  Unity,  and  in 
the  zeal  for  missions,  the  prediction 
is  here  ventured  that  we  shall  see  the 
Gospel  of  the  Divine  Sacrifice  ap- 
plied more  and  more  practically  to 
the  existing  conditions  of  society. 
17  257 


An  Application  of  Sacrifice 

The  treatment  of  criminals  shall  be 
considered  in  the  light  of  the  Divine 
Sacrifice.  The  chief  end  of  judicial 
action  toward  wrongdoers  will  be 
seen,  in  the  light  of  a  larger  doc- 
trine of  God,  to  be  redemptive;  and 
though  the  safety  of  society  may 
require  in  specific  instances  the  life- 
long separation  of  the  offender,  no 
crime  will  be  thought  to  justify  the 
punishment  of  death.  The  gallows 
and  the  electric  chair  have  no  place 
in  an  advanced  Christian  civilization. 
They  are  survivals  of  a  mode  of 
thought  and  of  a  mode  of  conduct 
which  characterized  an  earlier  age. 
The  killing  of  men,  on  the  evidence 
and  judgment  of  men  who  are  them- 
selves to  die,  grows  out  of  a  mis- 
taken idea  that  death  is  an  act  of 
God,  and  that  under  certain  circum- 
stances we  have  a  right  to  forestall 
that  act  and  to  precipitate  that  judg- 
ment. But  we  shall  reach  the  time 
when  even  our  courts  shall  recog- 
258 


An  Application  of  Sacrifice 

nize  that  the  conditions  which  lead 
up  to  murder  have  oftenest  their 
essential  causes  far  back  of  the  indi- 
vidual guilty  of  the  crime ;  and  so- 
ciety will  at  length  admit  that  He 
Who  tasted  death  for  every  man  can 
love  even  a  murderer,  and  can  have  a 
plan  of  grace  for  him  with  which 
sinful  and  fallible  men  have  no  right 
to  tamper. 

Day  by  day  we  all  feel  that  a  new 
spirit  of  social  sympathy  is  spring- 
ing up  among  men.  Its  true  cause 
is  the  better  understanding  of  the 
Gospel  of  the  Divine  Sacrifice.  All 
who  study  attentively  the  signs  of 
the  times,  must  note  (with  Mr.  Ben- 
jamin Kidd)1  the  new  spirit  of  ten- 
derness that  is  spreading  through  the 
most  prosperous  class  in  the  social 
order  toward  those  who  have  less 
opportunity  in  the  struggle  of  life. 
And,  as  he  points  out,  religion  is  its 
root;  the  religion  of  love  constrain- 

1  Social  Evolution,  pp.  158-165,  ed.  1894,  Mac- 
millan.  259 


An  Application  of  Sacrifice 

ing  to  the  expression  of  love.  Won- 
drously  is  this  spirit  spreading, 
wondrously  is  it  destined  to  spread, 
as  men  grow  to  realize  that  God 
looks  on  human  miseries  with  an 
infinitely  deeper  pity  than  man  can 
feel,  and  that  all  that  we  can  do  to 
relieve  suffering,  to  guide  and  coun- 
sel ignorance,  to  throw  light  into 
dark  and  dreary  places,  to  spend  and 
be  spent  for  others,  is  along  the  line 
of  that  eternal  Plan  of  the  All-Lov- 
ing One,  which  human  sin  and  fail- 
ure may  hinder,  but  cannot  wholly 
turn  aside.  Yes  !  It  is  the  long-lost 
chord  of  St.  John's  music  coming 
back :  "  Hereby  know  we  love,  be- 
cause He  laid  down  His  Life  for 
us :  and  we  ought  to  lay  down 
our  lives  for  the  brethren.  But 
whoso  hath  the  world's  goods  and 
beholdeth  his  brother  in  need,  and 
shutteth  up  his  compassion  from 
him,  how  doth  the  love  of  God  abide 

in  him  ? " 

260 


An  Application  of  Sacrifice 

Every  lover  of  Catholic  Unity 
must  look  into  the  twentieth  cen- 
tury with  hope,  when  he  perceives 
how  the  best  thought  of  Christians 
is  tending  more  and  more  to  relate 
the  Gospel  of  the  Divine  Sacrifice 
to  a  unified  Church.  Christ  is  being 
lifted  up  in  these  latter  days,  and 
light  is  pouring  upon  His  Cross, 
as  Biblical  study  insists  on  break- 
ing from  mediaeval  trammels  and 
going  back  to  claim  its  liberty  in 
the  Scriptures.  Far  are  we  now 
from  Catholic  Unity.  Still  does  the 
Church  persist  in  weakening  herself 
by  setting  arbitrary  difficulties  in  the 
way  of  unity,  but  while  official 
stumbling-blocks  abound,  the  hearts 
of  those  who  rejoice  in  Him  are 
drawn  near  to  one  another ;  and  as 
this  larger  perception  of  God's  Love 
deepens  everywhere,  no  sudden  and 
great  advance  toward  Catholic  Unity 
could  surprise  us,  nor  be  larger  than 
we  should  hope  for  among  those 
261 


An  Application  of  Sacrifice 

from  whose  vision  of  God  the  clouds 
of  gloomy  error  have  melted  away. 

The  Gospel  of  the  Divine  Sacri- 
fice is  the  essential  inspiration  of 
missions.  The  evangelizing  of  the 
world,  the  making  disciples  of  all 
the  nations,  was  the  primitive  idea 
of  Christianity.  "All  authority," 
said  Christ,  "has  been  given  unto 
Me  in  heaven  and  on  earth.  Go  ye 
therefore  and  make  disciples  of  all 
the  nations,  baptizing  them  into  the 
name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son, 
and  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  teaching  them 
to  observe  all  things  whatsoever  I 
commanded  you.  And  lo !  I  am 
with  you  alway,  even  unto  the  end  of 
the  world."  For  centuries,  while  the 
Church  seemed  to  incline  toward  a 
fatalistic  doctrine  of  God,  the  evan- 
gelizing of  the  world  languished. 
For  centuries  she  had  practically  no 
missions.  But  now,  in  this  last 
century,  with  its  tremendous  growth 
in  knowledge  and  in  individualism, 
262 


An  Application  of  Sacrifice 

with  its  mighty  movement  of  lib- 
eralism, we  have  witnessed  the 
growth  of  modern  missions,  which 
have  spread  to  every  part  of  the 
earth,  and  which  were  never  dearer 
to  Christians  than  to-day,  when  fa- 
natical persecutions  have  risen  up 
against  them  in  foreign  lands. 
Those  persecutions  seem,  both  at 
home  and  on  the  mission  field,  to 
have  had  no  other  effect  than  that 
of  deepening  the  conviction  that 
missions  must  go  on,  and  shall  go 
on,  at  any  cost  of  money  or  of  blood. 
Why  this  glorious  earnestness  ? 
Why  this  joyous  and  heroic  unani- 
mity? Because  the  sweet,  clear, 
simple  Gospel  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment is  coming  back  and  taking  its 
place  in  human  thought,  weary  with 
speculation  and  dogmatism.  The 
long  lost  chord  is  ringing  everywhere 
through  Christian  hearts :  "  God  is 
Love  !  God  is  Love  !  1 "  The  world 
is  full  of  sorrow,  full  of  failure,  full  of 
263 


An  Application  of  Sacrifice 

devilish  sin  and  shame,  but  —  God 
is  Love  ;  God  is  Love !  the  Saviour 
of  the  world,  the  Friend  of  the  friend- 
less, the  Light  of  Life,  the  Conqueror 
of  Death  ! 


264 


X 


THE   NEW  TESTAMENT  IDEA   OF 
PERSONALITY 


265 


For  in  Him  we  live  and  move  and  have  our 
being. 

ACTS  OF  THK  APOSTLES. 

And  the  God  of  Peace  Himself  sanctify  you 
wholly,  and  may  your  spirit  and  soul  and  body 
be  preserved  entire,  without  blame,  at  the  com- 
ing of  oar  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

EPISTLE  TO  THE  THESSALONIANS. 


266 


Chapter  X 

The  New  Testament  Idea  of 
Personality 

IN  his  Athenian  oration  St.  Paul 
asserts  Man's  life  in  God.  "In 
Him  we  live  and  move  and  have 
our  being."  In  one  of  his  Thessa- 
lonian  letters  he  declares  God's  Life 
in  Man :  "  God  Himself  sanctify 
you  wholly,  and  may  your  spirit  and 
soul  and  body  be  preserved  entire 
at  the  coming  of  our  Lord."  By. 
co-ordinating  these  two  thoughts,  — 
Man's  life  in  God,  God's  Life  in 
Man,  —  we  obtain  the  New  Testa- 
ment idea  of  Personality.  The  most 
wondrous  thing  about  life,  for  one 
who  accepts  the  New  Testament  Idea 
of  Personality,  is  life  itself.  Nothing 
that  man  does  is  so  wonderful  as 
what  man  is.  Here  is  where  a  true 
267 


New  Testament  Idea  of  Personality 

plan  of  living  should  begin ;  not  at 
the  thought  of  what  one  does  or 
plans  to  do,  but,  first  of  all,  at  the 
thought  of  what  one  is.  The  Idea 
of  Personality  should  be  clear  before 
the  idea  of  conduct  can  be  clear. 
Before  I  can  intelligently  ask  myself, 
"  What  shall  I  do  ? "  I  ought  to 
ask  myself :  "  Who  am  I  ?  "  "  Whence 
am  I  ?  "  "  What  am  I  ? "  The  lives 
of  many  would  be  calmer,  broader, 
richer,  worthier,  if  they  had  known 
themselves  better,  if  they  had  given 
deeper  thought  to  Personality  as  the 
great  fact  that  precedes  conduct ; 
and  the  whole  level  of  conduct  would 
be  raised  and  dignified  if  the  remem- 
brance of  what  we  are  were  present 
in  what  we  do.  Therefore  to  pre- 
sent the  New  Testament  Idea  of 
Personality  is  to  present  thoughts 
that  lie  close  to  daily  life ;  it  is  not 
to  lead  into  regions  of  speculative 
philosophy  far  from  the  questions 
pressing  on  us  day  by  day,  and  from 
268 


New  Testament  Idea  of  Personality 

the  practical  interests  that  are  de- 
manding our  attention.  It  is  directly 
to  help  one  to  answer  those  urgent 
life  questions  and  to  take  hold  of 
those  practical  interests ;  it  is  to 
make  better  men  and  women,  better 
fathers  and  mothers,  better  sons  and 
daughters,  better  husbands  and  wives, 
better  citizens,  better  leaders  and 
teachers  of  others,  better  and  wiser 
trustees  of  our  own  selves.  The 
two  texts  to  which  reference  was 
made  at  the  opening  of  the  chapter, 
are  utterances  of  one  and  the  same 
person ;  of  the  man  to  whose  writ- 
ings we  must  look  for  the  fullest 
expression  of  the  New  Testament 
Idea  of  Personality.  Because  both 
utterances  are  by  the  same  author, 
we  naturally  expect  the  thought  in 
the  one  to  be  confirmed  and  per- 
haps expanded  by  the  thought  in 
the  other.  We  find  this  to  be  the 
case.  St.  Paul's  fundamental  idea 
about  human  personality  recognized 
269 


New  Testament  Idea  of  Personality 

the  threefold  nature  of  man,  —  body, 
mind,  and  spirit;  a  physical  life  with 
its  appropriate  functions  and  powers ; 
an  intellectual  life  with  its  character- 
istic affections  and  ambitions ;  a 
spiritual  life  with  its  direct  relation- 
ship to  the  Spirit  of  God.  In  the 
quotation  from  the  Athenian  speech 
we  find  at  least  an  implied  recog- 
nition of  the  threefold  nature  of 
man's  personality,  as  a  life  lived  in 
God  :  "  In  Him  we  live  and  move 
and  have  our  being."  Viewed  in 
the  light  of  his  other  sayings  on  the 
same  subject,  this  threefold  expres- 
sion seems  to  indicate  his  belief  that 
each  realm  of  our  threefold  personal- 
ity,—  the  bodily  life,  the  mental  life, 
the  spirit  life,  —  is  related  to  God,  and 
continues  to  exist  because  of  its  re- 
lation to  God.  And  on  the  other 
hand,  as  to  God's  Life  in  Man,  his 
belief  is  that  God  may  act  directly  in 
each  realm  of  man's  threefold  person- 
ality, for  the  purpose  of  making  the 
270 


New  Testament  Idea  of  Personality 

whole  man  holy,  and  of  preserving  the 
whole  man  intact  for  the  enjoyment  of 
a  splendid  destiny.  "  May  God  sanc- 
tify you  wholly,  and  preserve  entire 
your  spirit  and  soul  and  body  at  the 
coming  of  the  Lord."  This  is  God's 
Life  in  Man  according  to  the  New 
Testament,  and  as  such  the  writer 
presents  it  now,  with  its  correspond- 
ing truth  of  Man's  life  in  God, —  as 
one  of  the  conclusions  issuing  from 
the  Gospel  of  the  Divine  Sacrifice.  It 
appears  necessary  not  only  that  one 
shall  apprehend  what  is  the  New 
Testament  Idea  of  Personality,  but 
that  one  shall  build  upon  it  a  distinct 
conception  of  conduct  and  destiny. 
To  promote  this  result  is  the  writer's 
objective  point.  He  is  not  debating 
the  truth  or  the  error  of  the  New 
Testament  Idea  of  Personality.  He 
is  not  engaging  in  controversy  with 
others  who  may  have  promulgated 
ideas  of  personality  which  depart 
from  the  teachings  of  the  New  Tes- 
271 


New  Testament  Idea  of  Personality 

tament.  He  is  engaged  purely  and 
simply  in  an  attempt  to  report  what 
the  New  Testament  Idea  is,  and  in 
urging  the  acceptance  of  that  idea  as 
a  working  hypothesis  in  one's  own 
thought  about  one's  self.  A  man 
must  think  about  himself,  or  live  a 
shallow,  vacillating  life ;  he  must  have 
a  theory  of  who  he  is,  and  what  he 
is,  and  whence  he  is,  or  be  in  his  con- 
duct like  the  senseless  weather-vane, 
blown  this  way  and  that  way  by  any 
wind  of  passion,  prejudice,  or  pug- 
nacity that  happens  to  be  blowing; 
he  must  have  some  settled  basis  of 
self-knowledge  on  which  to  stand  and 
from  which  to  administer  the  affairs 
of  daily  life,  or  be  like  a  bit  of  wreck- 
age on  the  sea  of  time,  tossed  to  and 
fro,  and  stranded  at  last  by  the  fury 
of  some  wave  higher  than  the  rest. 

When    one    reflects    that   life    is 
hurrying  through   its  earthly  expe- 
rience,   leaving    days,   months,    and 
years    behind    as    in    the    foaming 
272 


New  Testament  Idea  of  Personality 

wake  of  some  mighty  steamship ; 
when  one  considers  what  man's  temp- 
tations are  and  what  they  may  yet 
be ;  when  one  recalls  what  helpless- 
ness to  resist  evil,  and  what  sad  and 
sweeping  defeat  have  marked  and 
closed  the  careers  of  some  who  have 
lived  without  any  settled  and  estab- 
lished sense  of  their  own  person- 
ality in  its  relation  to  God,  —  well 
may  there  arise  a  longing  that  can- 
not be  uttered,  to  make  clear  to 
others  the  bearing  upon  themselves 
of  Man's  life  in  God  and  God's 
Life  in  Man. 

"  For  in  Him  we  live  and  move 
and  have  our  being."  Such,  ac- 
cording to  the  New  Testament,  is 
Man's  life  in  its  relation  to  God. 
"In  Him  we  live;"  that  is  to  say, 
as  St.  Paul  declares  in  the  same 
speech :  "  He  is  not  far  from  every 
one  of  us,  and  we  are  His  off- 
spring." In  Him  we  live.  What- 
ever life  is, — and  no  one  has  yet 

18  273 


New  Testament  Idea  of  Personality 

been  able  to  say  just  what  life  is, — 
all  the  biological  laboratories  in  all 
the  universities  of  the  world  have 
not  been  able  to  discover  what  life 
is,  —  but  whatever  it  is,  life  is  some- 
thing given,  not  self-derived.  Life 
comes  from  life;  life  comes  not 
without  pre-existing  life.  We  know 
that  we  live,  although  we  cannot 
say  what  life  is.  And  the  New 
Testament  Idea  of  life  is  that  in  his 
life  man  touches  that  Great  Life 
outside  himself  Which  was,  and  is, 
and  is  to  be  from  all  eternity  unto 
all  eternity.  In  Him  we  live ;  in 
Him  every  part  of  us  lives,  —  body, 
mind,  spirit.  Let  this  thought  take 
hold  of  the  mind  for  a  moment. 
See  to  what  conclusions  it  leads; 
see  what  divineness  it  brings  into 
manhood,  into  womanhood ;  see  with 
what  sacredness  it  clothes  person- 
ality, until  instead  of  living  with  only 
a  few  distant  and  formal  thoughts 
about  God,  thoughts  which  really 
274 


New  Testament  Idea  of  Personality 

have  had  little  bearing  on  anything 
done  or  planned,  one  finds  the 
thought  of  God  brought  into  every- 
thing, and  the  most  ordinary  and 
familiar  duties,  acts,  and  relations 
of  life  suddenly  set  forth  in  a  new 
and  grander  light. 

"  In  Him  we  live  and  move  and 
have  our  being."  Man  has  a  liv- 
ing body,  fearfully  and  wonderfully 
made;  an  organism  of  incalculable 
intricacy  and  delicacy,  wondrous  in 
its  powers,  amazing  in  its  uses;  a 
physical  creation,  which  yet  is  the 
vehicle  and  organ  of  all  intellectual 
and  spiritual  expression.  To  think 
of  life,  even  of  the  bodily  life,  as  in 
some  true  and  most  mysterious  way 
an  outcome  and  result  of  the  Life  of 
the  Infinite  God,  brings  the  glory 
of  the  Divine  even  into  the  realm 
of  the  physical.  As  Christ,  the 
Eternal  and  Uncreated  Son,  the 
Word  That  was  before  all  worlds, 
came  into  manhood's  world,  and 
275 


New  Testament  Idea  of  Personality 

dwelt  in  a  body,  making  it  and  all 
manhood  forever  a  consecrated  thing; 
so  we  bring  even  into  our  physical 
life  this  august  and  infinite  idea  of 
God's  Life  as  the  cause  of  our  own, 
and  behold,  personality,  even  ac- 
cording to  the  flesh,  becomes  in 
our  thought  sacred  and  honorable 
and  close  to  God. 

Man  has  a  thinking  mind,  an  emo- 
tional nature ;  imagination,  memory, 
powers  of  intellectual  expression. 
Thought  is  a  form  of  life.  The 
functions  of  the  body  no  more  reveal 
life  than  do  the  energies  of  the  mind. 
Ah !  how  intensely  at  times  we  feel 
the  throb  and  rush  of  the  mind's  life, 
when  we  have  reached  some  hour 
of  over-mastering  recollection,  in 
the  pain  of  which  the  mind  quivers 
like  a  suffering  animal ;  or  some 
hour  of  eager  reasoning,  in  the 
gladness  of  which  the  mind  soars 
and  poises  and  darts  onward  like 
an  untamed  eagle !  Yes,  thought 
276 


New  Testament  Idea  of  Personality 

is  life,  —  suffering  or  seraphic  life. 
And  whence  and  what  is  this  life 
of  the  mind  ?  Where  did  this  most 
marvellous  form  of  vitality  find  its 
origin  ?  How  shall  we  account  for 
our  power  to  think?  The  New 
Testament  answers :  "  In  Him  we 
live  and  move  and  have  our  being." 
In  Him  —  not  far,  not  far  from 
every  one  of  us.  Ah !  it  is  wonder- 
ful. When  I  think, — even  when 
I  think  unworthily,  —  I  am  using  a 
power  that  sprang  out  of  God. 
Thought  is  the  offspring  of  God. 

Man  has  a  spirit :  a  part  of  person- 
ality that  responds  directly  to  God ; 
and,  if  it  has  life  in  it,  goes  forth 
in  love  to  God,  desires  Him,  seeks 
after  Him,  continually  offers  itself 
up  to  Him  in  the  yearning  for  ho- 
liness. In  many  the  spirit  is  dead 
because  of  sin;  it  lies  unconscious 
within  the  life ;  its  characteristic 
functions  are  not  found;  there  is 
no  reaching  out  for  God,  no  com- 
277 


New  Testament  Idea  of  Personality 

munion  with  Him,  no  longing  to 
be  like  Him :  the  spirit  within  the 
man,  the  woman,  is  paralyzed ;  its 
activities  are  suspended  ;  it  is  death 
in  life.  But  in  others  there  is 
spiritual  response ;  will  and  purpose 
are  going  forth  toward  the  Living 
God.  How  came  that  spirit  to  live  ? 
By  what  power  was  it  brought  out 
of  death  into  life?  Who  made  it 
able  to  desire  God,  to  love  God,  to 
imitate  God?  The  New  Testa- 
ment answers :  "  In  Him  we  live  and 
move  and  have  our  being."  Yes, 
the  movement  of  the  human  spirit 
is  life,  life  taken  directly  from  con- 
tact with  God's  Life,  as  one  lights  a 
candle  from  the  flame  of  the  altar. 
"  The  spirit  of  man  is  the  candle  of 
the  Lord." 

We  have  spoken  of  Man's  life  in 
God ;  his  whole  being  touching  God 
at  every  moment  and  at  every 
point;  and  all  human  life,  its  spirit- 
ual energy,  its  mental  force,  its  bodily 
278 


New  Testament  Idea  of  Personality 

potency,  an  outcome  and  an  effect  of 
Divine  Power. 

But  the  New  Testament  Idea  of 
Personality  goes  farther,  and  speaks 
of  God's  Life  in  us.  We  are  not 
only  living  in  Him  insomuch  that 
every  part  of  our  life  depends  upon 
Him,  but  He  is  living  in  us  with  a 
great  purpose  to  make  every  part  of 
our  life  worthy  of  Himself  now,  and 
worthy  of  its  splendid  destiny  here- 
after. "  The  God  of  peace  Himself 
sanctify  you  wholly,  and  may  your 
spirit  and  soul  and  body  be  pre- 
served entire  and  without  blame  at 
the  coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ."  To  speak  of  God's  Life 
in  us  is  to  speak  of  God's  Purpose 
and  Will  for  our  personality.  And 
what  is  His  Will  for  us?  What 
would  He  do  in  us?  He  would 
sanctify  us  wholly,  and  preserve  our 
body,  mind,  and  spirit  entire  and 
without  blame  at  the  coming  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
279 


New  Testament  Idea  of  Personality 

It  has  already  been  pointed  out  that 
the  idea  of  personality  should  be 
clear  before  the  idea  of  conduct  can 
be  clear;  that  before  we  can  intelli- 
gently ask  "  What  shall  I  do  ?  "  we 
ought  to  ask  "Who  am  I?"  and 
"  What  am  I  ?  "  for  what  we  do  must 
be  determined  largely  by  what  we 
are.  The  great  determining  ques- 
tion of  conduct  should  of  course  be : 
"  Lord,  what  wilt  Thou  have  me  to 
do?"  but  before  one  can  ask  that 
question  with  full  intelligence  he 
should  ask  another,  which  may  be 
called  the  great  determining  ques- 
tion of  personality :  "  Lord,  what 
wouldst  Thou  do  in  me  ?  "  Let  us 
be  sure  that  we  know  what  God's 
Life  in  us  is  seeking  to  accomplish, 
and  then  shall  we  realize  the  great- 
ness of  our  personality  in  God's  sight 
and  be  the  more  anxious  to  put  our 
personality  entirely  into  His  hands 
and  to  do  whatever  He  would  have 
us  to  do.  So  we  ask:  "Lord,  what 
280 


New  Testament  Idea  of  Personality 

wouldst  Thou  do  in  me  ?  "  and  He  an- 
swers: "Sanctify  thee  wholly, and  pre- 
serve thy  body  and  mind  and  spirit 
entire  and  without  blame  at  the  Lord's 
coming."  Not  till  we  have  realized  all 
this  do  we  know  how  great  our  person- 
ality is.  God  would  sanctify  and  pre- 
serve our  bodily  life.  These  physical 
lives  of  ours  mean  much  to  Him.  The 
profanation  and  misuse  of  them  is 
horrible  in  His  sight.  The  reverent 
and  stainless  maintenance  of  them' 
is  that  to  which  He  seeks  to  lead  us 
by  dwelling  in  us.  To  Him  the 
body  is  a  Temple,  not  of  the  human 
spirit  alone,  but  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
the  Divine  Spirit,  God  Himself,  and 
He  would  have  us  regard  this  part 
of  our  personality  as  holy  in  His  sight 
and  in  our  own.  This  is  one  great 
message  of  the  Incarnation  to  such 
as  will  receive  it :  the  Word  made 
flesh  glorified  the  flesh,  so  that  who- 
soever profanes  it  profanes  the  Sub- 
stance of  Christ's  Person. 
281 


New  Testament  Idea  of  Personality 

God  would  sanctify  and  preserve 
our  minds.  From  the  miserable  in- 
cubus of  intellectual  indolence,  from 
the  ruthless  squandering  of  time  on 
vain  and  vapid  fancies,  from  the  poi- 
sonous breath  of  unhallowed  imagina- 
tions, from  the  petrifying  influence  of 
selfishness,  from  the  weakness  of  pride 
and  vanity,  from  the  deadly  passions 
of  hatred  and  jealousy,  from  every- 
thing that  can  impoverish  mental 
strength,  —  God  would  sanctify  and 
preserve  our  minds.  God  lives  in  us 
to  make  our  mental  life  beautiful,  to 
kindle  by  His  mysterious  Life-touch 
perceptions  of  all  greatness  and  lofti- 
ness of  thinking,  to  anoint  with  wis- 
dom the  eyes  of  our  understanding, 
that  they  may  see  and  choose  the  best 
in  all  things. 

God  would  sanctify  and  preserve 
our  spirits.  His  Life  is  in  us  to 
make  for,  holiness.  The  power  of  His 
Spirit  bears  on  us  to  make  us  like 
unto  Himself.  He  who  made  us 
282 


New  Testament  Idea  of  Personality 

regenerate,  having  begotten  us  again 
unto  a  living  hope  through  the  power 
of  Christ's  Resurrection,  would  now 
educate  and  expand  these  spirits  of 
ours  by  the  constant  discipline  of 
grace,  that  we  may  be  worthy  of  the 
calling  with  which  we  are  called,  and 
may  be  as  light-bearers  in  the  world, 
holding  forth  the  word  of  life. 

Such  appears  to  be  the  New 
Testamemt  Idea  of  Personality; 
Man's  life  in  God:  "In  Him  we 
live  and  move  and  have  our  being ; " 
God's  Life  in  Man,  seeking  to  sanc- 
tify him  wholly,  and  to  preserve 
entire  and  blameless,  for  an  immortal 
destiny,  the  threefold  life,  —  body, 
mind,  and  spirit. 

As  we  hold  up  before  us  this  great 
Biblical  conception  of  personality,  a 
conception  so  broad,  so  comprehen- 
sive, so  full  of  dignity  and  affection- 
ateness,  so  perfectly  in  accord  with 
one's  highest  ideal  of  what  must  be 
the  Will  of  God  for  man,  light  falls 
283 


New  Testament  Idea  of  Personality 

from  this  theme  upon  the  three  great 
thoughts  which  in  our  minds  lie 
nearest  to  personality:  the  thought 
of  sin,  the  thought  of  redemption, 
the  thought  of  destiny. 

Light  falls  upon  the  thought  of 
sin  as  a  discordant  and  abnormal 
fact  that  has  intruded  itself  into 
our  personality;  light  that  reveals 
sin  in  all  its  true  horror  as  a  grief 
to  God  and  an  offence  against  our 
truest  life.  Sin  is  every  choice  we 
make  for  ourselves,  every  thought 
we  think,  every  word  we  speak, 
every  deed  we  do  against  the  normal 
conditions  of  our  own  personality. 
We  have  seen  what  those  normal 
conditions  are,  how  full  of  splendor, 
hope,  and  opportunity  —  our  life 
in  God,  God's  Life  in  us.  Every 
sin  is  a  wounding  of  God's  Life  in 
us,  a  grieving  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  an 
affront  to  Him  Who  is  within  us, 
because  of  His  mighty  love  for  us. 
Every  sin  is  a  blow  dealt  at  one's 
284 


New  Testament  Idea  of  Personality 

own  personality,  —  an  act  of  law- 
lessness, a  setback  to  character,  a 
defiling  and  defamation  of  this  most 
holy  treasure  of  our  life. 

And  again,  as  we  hold  up  this 
great  New  Testament  conception 
of  personality,  light  falls  from  it 
upon  the  thought  of  Redemption, 
and  we  are  brought  to  co-ordinate 
the  Redemption  of  man  with  the 
Creation  of  man,  and  to  see  that 
what  was  created  was  also  redeemed. 
What  was  created  was  personality, 
—  the  threefold  unity,  —  body,  mind, 
spirit.  What  was  redeemed  was 
personality  —  the  three-fold  unity  — 
body,  mind,  spirit.  Can  any  one 
think  this  thought  out  to  its  con- 
clusions and  not  be  thrilled  with 
a  deeper  sense  of  the  sanctity  of 
life?  Has  Christ  indeed  suffered 
for  my  spirit  in  the  anguish  of 
His  Spirit?  Has  Christ  indeed  re- 
deemed my  mind  in  the  loneliness 
and  humiliation  of  His  own?  Has 
285 


New  Testament  Idea  of  Personality 

Christ  indeed  bathed  my  body  in 
the  Mystic  Stream  that  burst  from 
His  smitten  Heart  ?  Oh,  wonder  of 
wonders !  to  be  not  only  a  person 
living  in  God  and  lived  in  by  God, 
but  to  be  a  redeemed  person,  every 
part  of  whom,  one's  physical  being, 
one's  mental  being,  one's  spiritual 
being,  has  been  taken  by  Christ,  in 
His  own  Person,  up  to  the  altar 
of  pain  and  death,  and  there  conse- 
crated unto  newness  of  life ! 

And  finally,  when  we  hold  up  this 
great  New  Testament  Idea  of  Per- 
sonality, light  falls  from  it  upon  the 
thought  of  Destiny.  What  is  to  be 
the  Destiny  of  the  redeemed  per- 
sonality, when  the  Will  of  God  con- 
cerning it  shall  all  be  accomplished  ? 
It  is  all  so  precious  to  us,  in  the 
persons  of  those  whom  we  have  per- 
fectly known  and  perfectly  loved. 
Body,  mind,  spirit;  these,  in  our 
dearest,  are  but  one  in  our  thooght ; 
we  cannot  separate  them.  But  are 
286 


New  Testament  Idea  of  Personality 

they  to  be  separated  in  their  destiny  ? 
Is  death  the  eternal  rending  of  per- 
sonality ?  Does  the  grave  swallow 
up  forever  that  precious  part  of  per- 
sonality which  it  receives  ?  Is  there 
no  giving  back  ?  Is  there  no  resur- 
rection in  glory  of  that  which  was 
glorious  in  God's  sight  once,  and  in 
ours;  that  which  He  sanctified  and 
we  loved  ?  Let  them  who  will,  be- 
lieve that  the  body  has  no  destiny 
beyond  the  intense  and  abhorrent 
humiliation  of  the  awful  grave ;  but 
as  for  me,  may  my  tongue  cleave  to 
the  roof  of  my  mouth,  and  my  right 
hand  forget  her  cunning  in  the  day 
when  I  cease  to  believe  that  He  Who 
redeemed  and  sanctified  the  whole 
personality  —  body,  mind,  and  spirit 
—  shall  at  last  recover  and  recon- 
struct in  immortal  completeness  that 
which  was  rent  asunder  in  Death's 
Catastrophe.  By  every  grave  of  one 
of  Christ's  own,  still  shall  I  stand,  see- 
ing by  anticipation  there,  His  own 
287 


New  Testament  Idea  of  Personality 

Grave  emptied  in  Resurrection  ;  by 
every  friend  sleeping  the  last  mys- 
terious sleep,  still  shall  I  dare  to  say 
that  great  evangelical  prophecy  of 
a  reconstructed  personality :  "  For 
this  corruptible  must  put  on  incorrup- 
tion,  and  this  mortal  must  put  on 
immortality;  so  when  this  corrupti- 
ble shall  have  put  on  incorruption, 
and  this  mortal  shall  have  put  on 
immortality,  then  shall  be  brought 
to  pass  the  saying  that  was  written: 
Death  is  swallowed  up  in  victory." 
What  then  is  the  message  to  the 
individual  of  this  New  Testament 
Idea  of  Personality  ?  It  is  this.  To 
live  day  by  day  as  one  whose  whole 
personality  —  body,  mind,  and  spirit 

—  is  knit  to  the  very  Life  of  God  ;  to 
live  as  one  whose  whole  personality 

—  body,  mind,  and  spirit  —  is  being 
lived   in  by  the  Eternal  Sanctifier, 
seeking  to  make  one  worthy  to  be 
the  living,  breathing  shrine  of  God ; 
to  live  as  one  whose  whole  person- 

288 


New  Testament  Idea  of  Personality 

ality  —  body,  mind,  and  spirit  —  is 
redeemed  in  Christ  for  an  immortal 
destiny,  indestructible  by  Death,  to 
be  preserved  entire  in  the  hand  of 
the  All-Loving  Keeper,  and  to  be 
presented  blameless,  joyous,  and 
complete  at  last,  at  the  Coming  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 


19  289 


XI 

CONDUCT;  OR,  THE  CROWNING 
OF  ONESELF 


2QI 


Whether  therefore  ye  eat  or  drink,  or  whatso- 
ever ye  do,  do  all  to  the  glory  of  God. 

FIRST  EPISTLE  TO  THE  CORINTHIANS. 

Hold  that  fast  which  thou  hast,  that  no  man 
take  thy  crown. 

THE  REVELATION  OF  ST.  JOHN. 


292 


Chapter  XI 

Conduct ;  or,  The  Crowning  of 
Oneself 

A  SCENE  of  extraordinary  splendor 
was  the  coronation  of  the  Czar  of 
Russia  at  Moscow.  Possibly  in  all 
modern  history  there  has  not  been 
any  great  function  of  state  more  su- 
perbly conceived  and  executed  in 
its  material  detail.  Sailors  climbed 
the  aerial  pinnacles  of  palace-like 
Churches  and  wove  electric  lights 
about  them  irt  the  meshes  of  a 
glittering  web.  The  representatives 
of  all  terrestrial  empires,  attended 
with  suites  sumptuously  apparelled, 
came  travelling  from  the  north, 
the  south,  the  east,  the  west,  con- 
verging on  Moscow  like  the  rays  of 
a  sunburst.  The  strong  rooms  of 
the  Romanoffs  were  unlocked,  and 
293 


Conduct ;  the  Crowning  of  Oneself 

poured  forth  a  dazzling  stream  of 
gems :  pear-shaped  rubies,  historic 
diamonds,  aquamarines  beyond  price. 
Cloths  of  silver,  mantles  of  ermine 
and  minever,  velvets  seeded  with 
pearls,  jewelled  orders,  imperial  rib- 
bands, troopings  of  priests  and  prel- 
ates from  afar,  chantings  of  seraphic 
voices,  chimings  from  innumerable 
bells,  thunderings  from  deep-throated 
guns,  —  such  was  the  coronation  of 
the  Czar:  as  a  material  exhibit  of 
sight  and  sound,  the  most  that 
man  can  do !  Yet  the  material  opu- 
lence of  the  occasion  was  not  the 
most  impressive  feature  of  the  cor- 
onation. Far  above  all  that  sur- 
rounded it,  towered  the  moral  and 
political  significance  of  a  single 
moment  and  a  single  act.  The  mo- 
ment and  the  act  were  these  —  when 
the  Czar  crowned  himself.  He 
crowned  himself.  Standing  beneath 
the  baldachin  of  the  Cathedral,  and 
receiving  the  crown  from  the  repre- 
294 


Conduct ;  the  Crowning  of  Oneself 

sentative  of  his  religion,  he  suf- 
fered no  fellow-mortal  to  set  that 
crown  upon  him>  but,  lifting  it 
above  himself,  with  his  own  hands 
he  placed  it  firmly  on  his  own  head. 
The  Czar  crowned  himself;  and  in 
that  single  and  supreme  circum- 
stance lay  the  significance  for  good 
or  ill,  to  Russia  and  to  the  world, 
of  the  coronation  of  Nicholas.  He 
declared  himself  an  autocrat,  self- 
consecrated  under  God ;  taking  the 
symbol  of  his  life  sovereignty,  as  it 
were  the  direct  bestowal  of  God, 
and  appropriating  it,  without  human 
mediation  or  intervention,  directly 
to  himself.  As  his  figure  flashes 
forth  for  the  moment  before  the 
world,  the  figure  of  a  man  putting 
a  crown  upon  his  own  head  as  the 
sign  by  which  he  claims  and  appro- 
priates a  right  of  living,  it  gives  the 
suggestion  of  a  thought  that  bears 
nobly  and  truly  on  each  one  of  us. 
We  may  forget  the  Czar,  the  auto- 
205 


Conduct;  the  Crowning  of  Oneself 

crat,  the  courtly  surroundings,  the 
ruling  over  states,  and  see  only  a 
man,  standing  erect  before  God, 
taking  a  God-given  Crown,  and  put- 
ting it  with  his  own  hands  on  his 
own  head.  We  may  see  only  this : 
the  Crowning  of  Oneself.  And 
seeing  this,  we  will  see  the  true 
worth,  the  real  royalty  of  our  own 
life ;  we  will  see  why  St.  John  the 
Divine,  —  standing  in  no  cathedral 
made  with  hands,  but  standing  out 
under  the  baldachin  of  the  Grecian 
skies  on  the  Lord's  day  morning 
long  ago,  and  realizing  that  He  on 
Whose  Head  are  many  crowns 
meant  our  life  to  have  its  self-coro- 
nation for  service,  —  should  have 
cried  out  in  his  joy  and  wonder :  "  Un- 
to Him  That  loved  us,  and  washed  us 
from  our  sins  in  His  own  Blood,  and 
hath  made  us  kings  and  priests 
unto  God  and  His  Father,  to  Him 
be  glory  and  dominion  forever  and 
ever.  Amen." 

296 


Conduct ;  the  Crowning  of  Oneself 

The  Crowning  of  Oneself.  Let  us 
think  of  it  and  speak  of  it.  It  will 
be  remembered  that  in  the  preced- 
ing chapter  we  considered  one  of 
the  conclusions  which  appear  to 
issue  from  the  Gospel  of  the  Divine 
Sacrifice,  namely,  the  New  Testa- 
ment Idea  of  Personality;  Man's 
life  in  God  —  God's  Life  in  Man. 
Man's  whole  life,  body,  mind,  and 
spirit  was  regarded  as  subsisting  in, 
and  directly  related  to,  God's  Life, 
so  that  in  Him  we  live  and  move 
and  have  our  being ;  and  God's  Life 
was  seen  to  be  moving  in  the  whole 
life  of  man  with  a  purpose  to  sanc- 
tify it  wholly,  and  to  preserve  entire 
and  without  blame,  spirit  and  soul 
and  body  at  the  Coming  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ.  Such  was  found  to  be 
the  New  Testament  Idea  of  Person- 
ality ;  our  life  lived  in  the  enfolding 
atmosphere  of  the  Life  of  God,  and 
God's  Life  working  with  love's  no- 
blest Purpose  in  view  in  each  realm  of 
297 


Conduct ;  the  Crowning  of  Oneself 

this  threefold  life  of  ours.  Conduct, 
considered  as  the  crowning  of  one- 
self, is  the  supplement  and  completing 
of  the  thought  of  personality.  It  is 
important  to  establish  in  one's  mind 
a  sense  of  correlation  between  the 
two  subjects,  Personality  and  Con- 
duct, because  they  are  related,  not 
arbitrarily,  but  organically  and  of 
necessity.  Conduct  is  the  crowning 
of  personality.  Personality  is  being, 
Conduct  is  doing ;  which  is  the  cor- 
onation of  being  with  the  very  glory 
of  God.  "  Whether  therefore  ye  eat 
or  drink,  or  whatsoever  ye  do,  do  all 
to  the  glory  of  God."  What  we  do 
is  the  coronation  of  what  we  are. 
God  has  given  us  our  personality,  — 
a  thrice  noble,  thrice  holy  thing;  a 
thing  which  lives  in  all  its  parts,  and 
moves  and  has  its  being  in  Himself ; 
a  thing  in  which  through  all  its  several 
parts  His  Life  Power  seeks  to  enter 
and  to  act  unto  the  sanctifying  of 
the  whole  being.  Yes!  God  has 
298 


Conduct ;  the  Crowning  of  Oneself 

given  us  our  personality,  and  God,  in 
the  Divine  Sacrifice,  has  redeemed 
personality.  Now,  what  will  we 
do  with  it  as  thus  redeemed,  and 
what  will  we  do  by  it  ?  Where- 
withal shall  we  crown  our  being 
for  its  work  and  influence  in  life  ? 
Stooping  down  to  that  which  is 
beneath  us,  shall  we  pick  out  of  the 
dust,  out  of  the  clay  of  life,  the 
stained  and  withering  garland  of 
sin's  pleasure,  and  put  that  upon 
brows  that  were  meant  for  better 
things  —  or,  standing  erect,  and  con- 
scious of  our  redemption,  before  the 
Face  of  our  Father,  shall  we  receive 
from  His  Hand  the  royal  thought 
of  living  only  unto  His  Glory,  in 
body,  mind,  and  spirit,  and  shall  we 
crown  ourselves  with  that  thought? 
Wherewithal  shall  a  redeemed  per- 
son be  crowned  for  his  life  work  on 
earth,  — with  the  thorny  crown  of  self- 
indulgence,  that  makes  a  mockery 
of  our  personality,  or  with  the  glory- 
299 


Conduct ;  the  Crowning  of  Oneself 

thought  of  doing  only  that  which  is 
worthy  of  one  who  lives  in  God  — 
in  whom  God  lives. 

The  crowning  of  oneself !  What 
an  almost  terrifying  thought  is  this, 
that  we  must  crown  ourselves  on 
earth,  by  conduct ;  that  conduct  is 
the  coronation  of  personality  with 
the  wreath  of  dishonor  or  with  the 
circlet  of  nobleness;  and  that  con- 
duct is  what  we  do  and  what  no 
other  can  do  for  us !  If  in  some 
way  it  could  be  done  for  us ;  if 
other  hands,  wiser,  gentler,  holier 
hands  than  ours  could  come  and  set 
upon  our  brow  the  sign  that  desig- 
nates us  for  our  place  in  life  and  our 
influence  in  the  world;  if  one  could 
only  be  without  doing  !  If  one  could 
but  abide  in  the  calm,  high  thought 
of  what  we  are,  redeemed  in  Christ's 
Blood,  embraced  by  the  Life  of  God, 
and  born  into  this  world,  each  to  be 
a  habitation  of  God  through  the 
Spirit ;  if  one  could  gloriously  sub- 
300 


Conduct ;  the  Crowning  of  Oneself 

sist  in  the  ideal;  dwell  always  on  the 
high  Transfiguration  Mount  of  that 
superb  thought,  Man's  life  in  God, 
God's  Life  in  Man ;  if  the  doing  of 
deeds  were  not  always  pressing 
upon  us,  resolving  the  ideal  into  the 
real,  the  magnificent  abstract  into 
the  plain  and  definite  concrete,  call- 
ing us  down  from  the  transfigured 
mount  into  the  difficult,  crowded, 
perilous,  exhausting  plain  of  acts  and 
words!  Vainest  of  dreams  !  There 
is  no  being  without  doing,  —  per- 
sonality without  conduct  is  unthink- 
able. And  there  is  no  doing  for  us 
except  what  we  do  in  ourselves. 
Conduct  is  whatsoever  we  do,  — 
everything  in  every  hour  of  days  and 
weeks  and  months  and  years, — 
whether  we  eat  or  drink  or  whatso- 
ever we  do.  Conduct  is  what  we 
claim  for  ourselves ;  the  sign  we  set 
upon  our  own  brows  that  shows 
where  we  stand  and  what  we  declare 
ourselves  to  be ;  and  it  is  a  thought 
301 


Conduct ;  the  Crowning  of  Oneself 

which  might  well  appall  one  who  is 
no  coward,  that  some  crown,  picked 
from  the  dust  beneath  us  or  taken  in 
reverence  from  the  Hand  above  us, 
we  must  set  on  our  own  heads. 

But  our  danger  is  also  our  dignity. 
Drawn  down  by  temptation,  one 
may  stoop  and  pick  from  the  dust 
the  crown  of  shame  and  sorrow  and 
self-mockery,  and  degrade  there- 
with the  brow  of  Personality.  That 
is  man's  danger,  that  he  can  do  that 
which  is  far  beneath  him,  that  he  can 
mock  himself,  and  demean  himself 
by  conduct  unworthy  of  his  high  call- 
ing in  Christ  Jesus ;  but  in  that  pos- 
sibility which  springs  from  the  very 
construction  of  his  will  is  also  the  dig- 
nity of  a  Child  of  God  redeemed  in 
Christ  and  walking  in  the  Spirit :  that 
he  can  conceive  of  conduct  as  the 
crown  of  glory  wherewith  one  may 
crown  oneself ;  that  he  has  the  power 
to  take,  from  God's  offering  Hand, 
an  idea  of  conduct  great  enough  to 
302 


Conduct;  the  Crowning  of  Oneself 

comprehend  all  life,  to  declare  the 
royal  dignity  of  all  that  one  does, 
to  set  the  Kingly  Mark  on  every- 
thing, from  the  greatest  to  the  least 
item  of  our  daily  round.  It  is  with 
intense  enthusiasm,  with  indescrib- 
able interest,  one  who  believes  this 
seeks  to  set  forth  before  the  eyes 
of  others  such  a  thought; — conduct, 
the  crowning  of  personality ;  a  doing 
that  is  worthy  of  this  being  \  a  doing 
that  springs  from  the  remembrance 
of  what  one  is,  and  that  sets  upon  the 
outward  life  the  sign  and  affirma- 
tion of  its  own  value  in  the  sight  of 
God.  The  crown  does  not  make 
the  king,  —  the  crown  set  nobly 
on  the  head  is  but  the  affirmation 
of  the  kingship  that  is.  What  we 
do  does  not  make  us  what  we  are. 
What  we  do  declares  what  we  are. 
In  every  phase  of  action,  in  the  whole 
territory  of  conduct,  it  is  intended 
that  doing  shall  disclose  and  affirm 
the  quality  of  being. 
3°3 


Conduct ;  the  Crowning  of  Oneself 

"  Whether  therefore  ye  eat  or 
drink,  or  whatsoever  ye  do,  do  all  to 
the  glory  of  God."  But  we  cannot 
understand  how  "eating  and  drink- 
ing," and  the  great  multifarious 
"  whatsoever "  of  life,  can  be  to  the 
glory  of  God.  No,  we  cannot 
understand  it  when  we  think  only 
of  the  acts  themselves ;  considered 
thus,  many  of  them  are  most  un- 
divine,  most  material,  most  unim- 
portant acts.  But  the  acts  must  be 
thought  of  in  relation  to  the  person 
who  does  them.  Conduct  acquires 
its  meaning  and  its  worth  from  per- 
sonality. The  significance  of  the 
coronation  of  Nicholas  is  not  in 
the  golden  crown  considered  as  an 
object  by  itself ;  it  is  in  the  crown 
considered  in  relation  to  the  person 
on  whose  head  it  is  placed.  It  is 
because  the  Czar  is  the  Czar  that 
the  crowning  of  himself  becomes 
an  act  of  royal  significance.  It  is 
because  we  are  what  we  are  that 

3°4 


Conduct ;  the  Crowning  of  Oneself 

conduct  means  so  much.  Think  of 
yourself,  remember  who  you  are; 
think  of  your  life  in  God  and  God's 
Life  in  you ;  think  what  has  been 
God's  Purpose  for  you  always,  even 
from  out  of  the  eternal  past,  when, 
in  the  glorious  thought  of  His 
own  Mind,  He  knew  His  own  In- 
tention and  Desire  concerning  this 
wondrous  human  personality  that 
was  to  be  in  His  own  Image,  knew 
what  He  would  have  man  to  be ; 
think  thoughts  like  these  about 
yourself  if  you  would  know  the 
significance  of  conduct  as  the  cor- 
onation of  personality ;  if  you  would 
know  how  every  act  —  whether  we 
eat  or  drink  or  whatsoever  we  do 

—  may  be  to  the  glory  of  God. 
And,  that  you  have  the  right  to 

think  such  thoughts  about  your- 
self—  nay,  that  you  are  bound  to 
think  such  thoughts  about  yourself 

—  is   plain    to   him    who,   believing 
absolutely  the  New  Testament  Idea 

20  3°5 


Conduct ;  the  Crowning  of  Oneself 

of  personality,  will  take  that  same 
blessed  New  Testament  in  his  hand 
and  will  permit  the  Spirit  of  God, 
testifying  in  the  Word,  to  reason 
out  for  him  the  New  Testament 
logic  of  conduct  as  the  self-crowning 
of  personality.  It  then  appears  that 
to  make  "  whatsoever  we  do  "  to  be 
unto  the  glory  of  God  does  not 
mean  to  drag  into  conduct  an  un- 
real and  artificial  element  of  sanc- 
tity, which  must  inevitably  load 
one's  life  with  insincere  ceremoni- 
alism ;  it  means  to  remember  what 
God  the  Father  in  His  eternal  Pur- 
pose desires  one  to  be ;  it  means 
to  remember  what  God  the  Son  by 
His  work  of  Redemption  makes 
one  to  be;  it  means  to  remember 
what  God  the  Spirit,  by  His  indwell- 
ing, authorizes  one  to  be. 

It  means,  to  remember  what  God 

the   Father  in  His  eternal  Purpose 

desires  one  to  be.     Here  is  where 

foreordination  finds  its  place  in  our 

306 


Conduct ;  the  Crowning  of  Oneself 

thinking ;  not  as  a  grievous  yoke  of 
fatalism,  but  as  a  perfect  law  of  lib- 
erty. New  Testament  foreordina- 
tion  is  not  necessarily  to  be  regarded 
as  the  fixing  of  destiny  by  a  decree ; 
it  is  also  possible  to  regard  it  as  the 
Purpose,  the  Desire,  the  Intention 
in  God's  Mind  for  the  personality 
He  has  made  in  His  own  Image,  — 
God's  prophetic  coronation  of  our 
lives,  as  lives  which  are  united  to 
His  own  ;  that,  in  time,  we,  becoming 
conscious  of  His  Purpose  for  us, 
may  choose  to  crown  ourselves  by 
conduct  worthy  of  the  calling  with 
which  we  are  called,  worthy  of  the 
royal  inheritance  our  Father  has  be- 
stowed. "  In  Him "  says  St.  Paul, 
"  we  were  made  a  heritage,  having 
been  foreordained  according  to  the 
Purpose  of  Him  Who  worketh  all 
things  after  the  counsel  of  His  Will, 
that  we  should  be  unto  the  praise  of 
His  Glory,  we  who  had  before  trusted 
in  Christ." 

3°7 


Conduct ;  the  Crowning  of  Oneself 

And  then,  it  is  to  remember  what 
God  the  Son,  by  his  work  of  Redemp- 
tion, makes  one  to  be.  "  To  Him 
That  loved  us,  and  washed  us  from 
our  sins  in  His  own  Blood,  and  hath 
made  us  kings  and  priests  unto  God 
and  His  Father,  to  Him  be  glory 
forever.  For  ye  are  an  elect  race, 
a  royal  priesthood,  a  holy  nation, 
a  people  for  God's  own  possession, 
that  ye  may  show  forth  the  excel- 
lencies of  Him  who  called  you  out 
of  darkness  into  His  marvellous 

light." 

And  yet  again,  it  is  to  remem- 
ber what  God  the  Spirit,  by  His 
Indwelling,  authorizes  one  to  be. 
"  Know  ye  not  that  your  body  is  the 
Temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  Which 
is  in  you,  Which  ye  have  of  God ; 
and  ye  are  not  your  own,  for  ye 
are  bought  with  a  price;  therefore 
glorify  God  in  your  body  and  in 
your  spirit,  which  are  God's." 

Such  are  the  thoughts  we  have 
308 


Conduct ;  the  Crowning  of  Oneself 

the  right  to  think  about  ourselves,  — 
such  the  thoughts  we  are  bound  to 
think  about  ourselves  if  we  hold  the 
New  Testament  Idea  of  Personality. 
And  thinking  those  thoughts,  life 
recovers  its  dignity  and  conduct,  in 
the  greatest  matters  and  in  the 
smallest ;  all  action,  whether  we  eat 
or  drink,  or  whatsoever  we  do,  be- 
comes the  Crowning  of  Oneself — the 
acknowledgment  with  our  own  hands 
and  by  our  own  wills  of  what  we  are 
in  the  Purpose  of  the  Father,  in  the 
Love  of  the  Son,  in  the  Grace  of 
the  Spirit.  This  is  a  glorious  doc- 
trine of  conduct.  It  clothes  life  with 
new  meaning.  It  sets  upon  the 
brow  a  diadem  of  self-respect.  It 
makes  one  stand  erect  and  look 
upon  life  as  a  great  privilege  to  be 
used,  a  great  trust  to  be  adminis- 
tered. There  is  nothing  in  this 
doctrine  of  conduct  at  variance 
with  humility.  The  publican  whom 
Christ  blessed  above  the  Pharisee, 
3°9 


Conduct ;  the  Crowning  of  Oneself 

stood  in  the  Temple  and  would  not 
so  much  as  lift  up   his   eyes    unto 
heaven,  but  smote  upon  his   breast 
and  cried,  "  God  be  merciful  to  me 
a  sinner."     "  Not  much,"  you  say,  "  of 
the  kingly  in    that   attitude  "  "  Not 
much,"   you  say,   "  of  the  crowning 
of    oneself    in    that   smiting  of    the 
breast."      No,    there    is    not.     And 
that  is  what  sin  does.      Sin  is  the 
unkingly  act,  sin  is  the  soiling  and 
the    bartering   of    our   crown.      Sin 
bows  like  a   bulrush   the   head  that 
might  have    been    erect,   dims   with 
scalding   tears   of   shame   eyes    that 
might  have    looked    into    the    Eyes 
of   God.     Sin  takes   the  hands    that 
might  have  lifted  our  crown  to  place 
it   grandly   on    our   brow,  and    sets 
them  beating  sadly  and  wearily  upon 
our  breast.    But  God  would  not  have 
only  the  beating  of   the  breast  and 
the  downcast  eyes  of  shame.     God 
loves  sinners.     God  helps  the  sinful. 
But  sin  and  the  humiliations  of  sin 
310 


Conduct ;  the  Crowning  of  Oneself 

were  never  our  destiny,  planned  in 
the  Holy  Heart  of  Eternal  Love. 
"  He  hath  chosen  us  in  Him  before 
the  foundation  of  the  world,  that  we 
should  be  holy  and  without  blame 
before  Him  in  love."  And  if  in  the 
self-will  of  the  past  we  have  become 
unholy,  it  is  no  pleasure  to  God  that 
we  should  go  on  beating  our  breasts 
forever.  If  the  forgiveness  of  sins 
be  not  a  mockery,  if  the  majestic 
Redemption  we  commemorate  in  the 
Sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Body  and 
Blood  be  not  a  fiction,  there  is  a 
lifting  up  of  the  bowed  head  pos- 
sible ;  there  is  a  receiving  afresh  of 
the  crown  and  a  putting  of  it  on 
in  faith  and  hope ;  there  is  a  look- 
ing once  more  with  clear  eyes  into 
the  Face  of  God,  Who,  according  to 
His  great  mercy,  has  begotten  us 
again  unto  a  living  hope  by  the 
Resurrection  of  Jesus  from  the  dead, 
unto  an  inheritance  incorruptible, 
undefiled,  and  that  fadeth  not  away. 
3" 


Conduct ;  the  Crowning  of  Oneself 

To  each  life  that  acknowledges  the 
Purpose  of  the  Father,  the  Atonement 
of  the  Son,  the  Potency  of  the 
Spirit,  may  it  then  be  said  :  "  Hold 
that  fast  which  thou  hast,  that  no 
man  take  thy  crown."  Be  kingly 
in  your  thought  and  you  shall  be 
kingly  in  your  deed.  Child  of  a 
Royal  Father,  remember  Whose  you 
are  and  Whom  you  serve.  Kinsman 
of  One  erst  crowned  with  thorns, 
now  crowned  with  many  crowns, 
crown  thyself,  day  by  day,  by  doing 
all  unto  the  glory  of  God.  Let  no 
man  take  thy  crown,  thy  glorious 
crown  of  a  consecrated  conduct. 
Hold  that  fast  which  thou  hast;  set 
firmly  on  thine  head,  as  thy  royal 
right,  the  belief  that  whatsoever 
thou  doest  has  a  meaning,  and  a 
value  in  the  sight  of  God,  which 
makes  it  a  glory  simply  to  live  one's 
life.  Crown  thyself  until  He  crown 
thee.  Fight  the  good  fight.  Keep 

the  faith.    Finish  thy  course.    Hence- 
312 


Conduct ;  the  Crowning  of  Oneself 

forth  there  is  laid  up  for  thee  the 
crown  of  righteousness,  which  the 
Lord,  the  righteous  Judge,  shall  give 
thee  at  that  day,  —  and  not  to  thee 
only,  but  to  all  them  that  have  loved 
His  Appearing. 


THE    END 


313 


IT 


(2- 


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